the images below are representative; new work is always occurring
Doc Atomic - Art
torso - electrical resistors on store display. many tens of thousands individual pieces.
dolls - dolls decorated with electrical resistors. This particular one is a 1969 Uneeda Doll Company (Hong Kong) and is decorated with close to 15,000 individual resistors. the arms, legs, and neck still move freely.
machina dolls - wire on welded rebar frame, electronic parts. each doll has over a football field in length of woven wire. about 12" tall.
explanation: the pueblo indians of the southwest, in particular the hopi, have a complex religion. one fundamental aspect of which is that all things in the world have two forms - the visible object and a spirit counterpart. the spirit part of a thing is the kachina. kachina dolls are effigies of the spirit part of a thing ('tihu' in hopi), and bear a small portion of the kachina's power, just as children bear some semblence to their parents. the tihus or dolls are thus not toys, and are placed out of harms way so that the owner may posess this small portion of spirit power for life.
if all things have a spirit essence, then so do our modern technologies. I refer to such modern spirit essence as 'machina' and their effigies 'machina dolls'
This piece is made from at least a football fields length of wire, woven together. A lot of the wire came from electronic equipment used for joint Russian-American pulsed power research performed at the University of New Mexico in the 1990's. The base is a machined piece of solid brass from a plasma energy chamber also used in pulsed power research. The head is a cat skull, which I found in the alley behind my house (I didn't kill it, honest) decorated with colorful electronic resistors.
electric flowers - electronic parts. flowers are either computer hard drive coils or gears. leaves either from copper ribbon cable or unpopulated circuit board.
heads - electrical resistors (usually) over store display. i have made a great many of these, all very different. These typically require 1500-3500 individual pieces that are handled three separate times during fabrication.
dinosaurs - I've made 2 series of these so far...lots & lots of wire and various electronic parts. Pretty self-explanatory.
turtles - lots & lots & lots of these. Different sizes, different materials, etc
The following two pieces were prepared specifically for a European exhibition of the art associated with professional wrestling and were displayed in the following museums in France:
Maison Folie de Wazemmes, Lille, France; Miam (Musée International des Arts Modestes) Sete, France; Musee de L'Objet, Blois, France.
Rey Electrico is made of: resistors (face & neck); capacitors (scalp & neck); telephone speakers (ears); a glass vacuum chamber cover (base); there are approximately 2500 individual peices.
La Bruja Azul is made of: primarily capacitors with some resistors; telephone speakers (ears); a c.1970 Garard turntable (base); keyboard keys; there are approximately 2000 individual peices.
2D Landscapes - electronic parts. I have made many of these - my intent is to portray the organic with the inorganic - portray a natural landscape much as I may see from my porch - but do so with the un-natural electronics. Like the flowers above (or most of my work) I prefer to create images that on one scale appear to be 'other than they are' upon closer examination. Also, the 'sky' changes from a shimmering copper to silver color depending on the angle of the lighting.
