I chose this name because the landscape is a scene from my mind. Those scenes are comprised of many decades of tromping through the hills and mountains of SW Montana and the many youthful summers in and along the Yellow Stone River.

This piece is a genuine landscape in 3 D. See: “Landscape Sculptures” 2012.

Structures: Approaching the piece the structural dynamics speak. A long slab of stone augmented with a concrete form supported on both ends with steel legs, like a bridge. The joint between concrete and stone visually wants to sheer. The large penetrations in the stone leave barley enough strength to keep the stone from splitting. The thin top stone area under tension and the bottom one in compression with the slender tree trunk where it forks giving the last bit of strength to keep the slab intact.

Color: The black dolomite is so rich in iron/magnesium that the chips from carving are magnetic, this oxidizes the stone black. The concrete was batched with black dye then sealed with dye in the sealer. The dark colors give a stoic feel to the sculpture, by leaving the steel supports with a rust finish the legs are held separate as bents on a bridge. The delicate steel bracket holding the swinging stone disk is blackened with steel dye, for a machine finish.

Composition: Standing on one side if it the scene is of a tree set in the ‘far view’ of a sunset with echoes of the sun and rays reaching the upper limbs. To the other side of the tree are flowing leaf forms. On the concrete form that completes the rectangle is embedded a spiral; at the tip of stone and end of the concrete is a toy.
 A stone disk is hung from the stone tip and swings into the concrete form with viewer assistance it bobs in and out of the slot. A breach of 2 taboos: don’t touch the art and have some fun playing while viewing.

From the other side the scene is a ‘near view’: with exotic plants in bloom under the tree with moon and water traveling inside the tree with spiral tendrils. The sun shape at the base of the tree is a circle in negative and positive relief that due to the near view is not in a sky. The concrete shape is even more divorced in this scene and becomes more of an extension of the rectangle while having more bulk increases the sheer quality. Again the stoic value of the concrete is broken with the toy like stone disk hung at the end bobbing in the slot.

Strolling around the piece the 800 + pounds is animated and seems lively. As scenes suspended in space … spanning like a bridge, the images of off in the distance and up close like a garden mix and blend in the mind.