2013.6 Fin Whales

Fin Whales. Endless Possibilities in Black and White

I spent four years in graduate school studying whales, and my life admiring them and thinking about them, but I never made a sculpture of a whale. This was in part, because Steve Wainwright pointed out just how much bad whale art there is, and I never wanted to contribute to the slop. But, I think that by abstracting parts of the whale into this geometric form, I've escaped the morass, and, at any rate, I may be the only one who sees a whale in these pieces at all. This set also offers many possibilities. One of my early arrangements is evocative of vertebrae. It's a bit of a tribute to Steve, as we spent a lot of time in his lab thinking about vertebra. After vertebra, the obvious arrangements involve swirls in many directions. This is how it was displayed in the student art show at DeAnza college, where it won the ceramics prize. Lately, I find I like it simply lined up.