The latter half of 2009 was spent at Mid-Ocean Studio working on another large piece of public art. This time, under the guidance of Wright Deter I helped build a 10 foot tall Grizzly Bear for a newly revamped public park in Kelowna, British Columbia.
The first step to fabrication was to build a platform on which a grid was drawn. Though the grid is hard to make out you can see the platform in the following picture. (Thats me finishing the welding from the inside...)
To achieve the contour and continuity of live shape the Bear was built one rod length at a time according to engineer specified drawings and measurements.
Each point of convergence is a 1/2 inch thick steel washer connecting rods, which have been pre-cut to the engineers specifications. (These are the dark spots where the rods meet).
First I measure out the 'x' and 'y' dimensions on the plywood grid and mark the spot. To find the 'z' dimension, that is, the point's place in three-dimensional space, we modified some tools. Vice grips were fused to a speed rail fitting. These fittings slide onto a pole that is drilled into the ground near the specified point. In the following picture Wright is finishing up the Bear's face, and is surrounded by those poles which all represent different points of convergence:
...a washer is clamped into a vice grip and that fitting is moved up and down the pole to find the correct height, then manipulated to agree with the contours of the bear's body. Once one of the washers is in place or "floating" we bring in a piece of steel rod custom cut to fill the space between the existing and floating washers. That rod is "tacked" in, that is, lightly welded into place so that we can confirm or tweak its position before moving on to the next piece. Once the whole form was pieced together I began the process of finishing/filling in all of these welds. Over 350 points of convergence.Building three-dimensionally was a painstaking process but quite rewarding as the shape of the bear came together. Once all the tack welds were beefed up and the body securely assembled, it was sent to a powder coater to be painted and readied for the next phase: the inner matrix.
