Kate Kaman's Studio Blog

Renewal

2008-12-23T07:53:00.000-08:00

I'm currently working on this suspended copper sculpture - "Renewal" - which is going into a hotel lobby in early 2009. The dimensions are approximately 17' x 12' x 6'.

Bird City

2008-12-22T14:30:00.000-08:00

Ongoing collaboration with landscape designer Lily Jencks.

Favorite winery in Napa Valley

2008-11-29T14:47:00.000-08:00

Artesa

why? Because it's a sculpture center as well as a winery. Killer combo.

Paradise - Millbourne Station Proposal

2008-10-17T12:22:00.000-07:00

Millbourne is a community in the greater Philadelphia area where the people come from very diverse backgrounds, including large numbers of folks from the Philippines, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and - a standout on this list - Greece. That isn't supposed to be an exhaustive list... :) its just what we were told, and who we encountered while walking around the tiny township.

Kate Kaman Studios developed a sculpture proposal that deals with a rare bird: a multi-ethnic character in its own right.

The Peafowl, and more specifically, the Peacock, is a character that figures in the myths of all of these cultures... trickling down through the folk stories, starring in fables, and permeating the religious symbolism. The name of the piece comes from one of our favorite stories, wherein peacocks stand guard at the Gate into Paradise.

We like peacock feathers for their unsurpassed natural beauty, their innocence, and because they're new material for us.

NYC - DUMBO art show Sept 26-28

2008-09-17T13:24:00.000-07:00

Very fun art event in NYC ... Sept 26-28, 2008.... called the Art Under the Bridge Festival.

Interesting to watch reactions to The Clone Corporation. Public sculpture in a different light.

Covert Art Installation #2

2008-09-17T13:18:00.000-07:00

For those of you out there who have been waiting, this is it: Covert Art Installation #2

"Sculpted Green" Opening in Seattle

2008-06-14T10:20:00.000-07:00

Tonight we're having the opening of the exhibit "Sculpted Green" in Bellevue Washington. The show includes the work of contemporary sculptors who, through the materials they use, techniques they employ and/or message they seek to impart relate art to ecology, environmentalism, sustainability and similar green notions.

"The Nebulae" are installed right in front of Bellevue City Hall. The lights- powered completely off the grid- are LEDs that modulate through seven different color patterns. The photovoltaic system is a bit over-engineered. It actually charges two deep cycle battery packs, which will hopefully allow it to last a full three months in overcast Seattle. :)

Olympic Sculpture Park

2008-06-12T11:56:00.000-07:00

The Olympic Sculpture Park transforms a nine-acre industrial site into open and vibrant green space for art. This new waterfront park gives Seattle residents and visitors the opportunity to experience a variety of sculpture in an outdoor setting, while enjoying the incredible views and beauty of the Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound. Admission is free.

the world's most dangerous animal...

2008-06-12T11:07:00.000-07:00

On Friday we traveled to Boston and installed a sculpture the Arsenal Center for the Arts.

The show is titled Nature and Balance, and it includes sculpture by Jillian Christy, Nicole Colella, Nick Edmonds, Rebecca Greene, Linda Hoffman, Wendy Klemperer, Thomas Matsuda, Laura Morrison, Yuya Shiratori, and of course myself, Kate Kaman.

My sculpture in the exhibit is an homage to/study of the most dangerous animal in the world: the animal that kills more people in Africa than any other animal. Just like the Predator, only tiny.

I especially like the sculpture's location: hiding suspended above a trail through the woods.

Grand Opening June 22nd will include: Walking tours, art activities: bookmaking, fabric house portraits, and self portraits, live music

Drop in Sundays: July 27, August 24th and October 19: Walking tours, live music, art and theatre activities for all ages.

Exhibit is installed on the grounds of the Arsenal on the Charles campus.

Chester Springs - All About Trees

2008-06-01T07:36:00.000-07:00

ALL ABOUT TREES
An invitational exhibition of works approaching the tree from many different perspectives and using many different materials. See Pam Taggart’s painting workshop Historic Trees of Chester County under Workshops.

Artists exhibiting are:

Theresa Atkins
Arielle Azeez
Barbara P, Barthalomew
Ruth Borgenicht
Melinda Breecker
Emily Brown
Howard Brunner
Demini Celebri
Stella Gassaway
Lauren Litwa Holden
Kate Kaman
Noh Joo-Whan
Dan Miller
Helen Mirkil
Bryan H. Peterson
Seymour Remenick
Sally Ritter
Eleanor Schimmel
Jim Simmons
Jeanie Silver
Marion Spirn
Pam Taggart
Mary Lou Toal
Patti Wall
Carol Wisker
Opening Reception: June 1, 2-5 p.m.
Exhibition: June 2-27
Mondays-Fridays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Shockwave
by Kate Kaman

an artistic study of aural signals used by the world's largest living beings

Designed to be either suspended between two trees or placed among them in a shady grove, Shockwave is bizarre imaginary juxtaposition of whales interacting with trees in a forest. The idea of huge living beings on the surface of the earth is apocalyptic. What if wildest imagination became reality and a 100-foot long sea mammal startled you on your next hike in the woods? What if trees communicated like whales? There is more than meets the eye to this sculpture: it is a sonic sculpture. When two people are standing in the right alignment, voices echo like an amphitheater or a violin. The design of this sculpture touches on the way people and whales use voices and songs to communicate. Like a submarine ping, Shockwave is a three dimensional homage to sound waves as they radiate out from a central point.

Carano Gallery Group Show

2008-06-01T07:26:00.000-07:00

Join the sherman mills arts community (smARTS) for our group show.
The show includes twenty eight artists who live and or work at sherman mills. Work includes two dimensional and three dimensional works — textiles, painting, drawing, ceramics, sculpture, and glass.
Meet the artists at our reception on June 13th.
carano gallery
building 32 : 3510 Scotts Lane

GALLERY HOURS
Saturday & Sunday
11 am - 5pm

ARTIST RECEPTION
Friday, JUNE 13th
5-7 pm

participating artists:
Sharyn Abramowitz
Arielle Azeez
Wendy Pew Bankoff
Nancy Barnes
Sandra Chierici
Damini Celebre
Nancy Clothier
Joel Erland
Karen Freedman
Andrew Gardener
Stella Gassaway
Marjorie Grigonis
Nancy Frankel-Halbert
Kate Kaman
Diane Lachman
Sandi Lovitz
Sue McKee
Mujahid Abdul-Baeth
Kate Ohara
Pam Pawl
Sheri Rose
Craig Rothfuss
Barbara Schumer
Deb Simon
Maria Solomon
Nancy Tabas
Pam Taggart
Carol Wisker
Michael Zerbe

Nebulae sendoff

2008-05-21T10:44:00.000-07:00

We deinstalled the Nebulae from Baltimore, and are sending it to the city of Bellevue in the Pacific Northwest. I hope there are enough sunny days there to power the sculpture! Thanks again to Andrew and Jeremy

Dance! Dance! Transportation!

2008-05-14T19:02:00.001-07:00

Headcrab at the Pyramid Club

2008-05-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

If you happen to be downtown tonight, & near Penn Center, & if you have some loot burning a hole in your pocket, you could come check out an art auction at a private club inside the pyramid-shaped penthouse on the 52nd Floor of 9 Penn Center.
Mellon Bank Center is one of the tallest buildings in the world... & the view... is.... simply ... incredible.

We donated a couple of sculpture studies for future public art (small-scale, but sculptures in their own right).

"World", meet "Headcrab" & "Aam"..... "Headcrab" & "Aam", meet "World."

Make Love - a covert art installation

2008-05-04T15:10:00.000-07:00

Midnight, Satuday, April 3rd, 2008. At the top of the stairs of the Philadelphia Art Museum, halfway between Rodin's "The Kiss" and the Constantin Brancusi's "The Kiss," one of the most popular icons of modernist sculpture is on its side. This new rendition of The Kiss has been dubbed, "Make Love."

The sculpture, though huge, is virtually cloaked. At seven feet tall, and close to a thousand pounds, Make Love is a truly mammoth sculpture. So you would think it would be easy to spot, right? But the artwork seemed to blend into its surroundings. The plain concrete color-ubiquitous in any city- is not dissimilar to the limestone of the Art Museum steps. It is a larger-than-life public-sculpture-with-urban-camouflage twist.

Philadelphia artists Kate Kaman and Joel Erland collaborated in an act of "covert art". Make Love installed late Saturday night, was seen by thousands of people who walked right by it, sat on it, and balanced cameras on it during Sunday's race. Its location right above the infamous "Rocky Staircase" meant that tour bus after tour bus full of tourists piled out, ran up, and shouted "Adrian!" Some of them even climbed on top of it for a better view of City Hall. To the general public, the sculpture was just another part of the Museum's regular exhibits.

The KISS as collaborative performance art

2008-05-03T21:19:00.000-07:00

The KISS.
Kate Kaman & Joel Erland, 2008.
Cement, rebar & chicken wire.

This monolithic concrete sculpture weighing close to a thousand pounds began as an exercise- an enlargement of a master copy. The Kiss is a collaboration with my fiance Joel Erland; a fan of Brancusi ever since he studied sculpture at the American School of Bucharest (in Brancusi's homeland of Romania). I, too, feel a distinct dialogue with the sculptor of the original piece. The Kiss is a part of my artistic heritage because one of my teachers studied under a student of Auguste Rodin (who perhaps more than anyone else in the art world first recognized the genius of Constantin Brancusi). As we sculpted it, I began to notice a change in meaning achieved by the simple change of scale. People walking by the studio would pretend to worship it, and leave "gifts" at its feet. It was amusing how the sculpture took on a personality of its own. Always in jest, the idea persisted: through this change of scale, the sculpture seemed larger than life, invoking a primitive awe. Spurred on by this idea, some collaborators and I put together this provocative performative artwork dedication for the sculpture:

The performance was very well received. We were informed it was the very first time live chickens have EVER performed at PennDesign.

Special thanks to Steve Hoke and Jay Beck for drumming, and to Ryan Anderson, Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, Wendy Tai, and Ashley Neal for helping to make the artwork a success.

Fetish

2008-04-23T07:25:00.000-07:00

Fetish
Cellulose ceiling panels, wood, pencils, resin, plaster, paint.

This interactive sculpture tries to address a tragic subject that is all too real to those of us living in Philadelphia. It serves as a painful examination of the culture of murder that exists in our city.

Fetish is a working turnstile with sawed off shotguns for arms. It speaks about public school violence, and West African fetishes, and Freudian drives, and pencils thrown at ceiling tiles, and the 392 people murdered last year alone in the city of brotherly love. There are 392 pencils, and each one is unique, like a tiny tombstone to those who were killed in 2007. Each pencil states the name, date of death, age, race, sex, time of death, and method of homicide for each unique victim.

These photographs were taken during an installation at an interactive art event called Psychedelphia (held at the Rotunda at 4014 Walnut Street).

Invisible Man

2008-04-21T07:54:00.000-07:00

Invisible man. Kate Kaman, 2008.
Compact discs.

A tribute to Ralph Ellison's great novel, Invisible Man, I'm experimenting here with found objects in a way that broadens my sculptural discipline. An engaging and beautiful book deserves an artwork that is just as intentional. Much like Ellison's work is influenced by the tempo and lyrical nature of jazz, so this work is delivered with a musical twist. I want to see more collaboration between artists in music, sculpture and all the fine arts. The arrangement of the compact discs on the floor is a simple gesture: the quadrangle is the same aspect ratio as the cover of the paperback novel.

Cryoflagellites

2008-04-14T09:05:00.000-07:00

Cryoflagellites. Kate Kaman, 2008.
Polyurethane resin, electroluminescent wire, effervescent wire.

An artwork that seems eerily like a living being, this sculpture glows, reacts to sounds in its environment, and is warmed from within. Inspired by the phenomenon of bioluminescence I witnessed while kayaking in the Carribean, this piece of art is a reflection on the amazing micro-organisms called dynoflagellites that live in salt-water bays lined by mangroves.

This stop-motion animation was filmed as the cryoflagellites melted their way slowly through a huge block of ice in which they were frozen. It was my first use of a temporary ice armature. In collaboration with Amy Megida, I exhibited cryoflagellites as part of a sculptural installation dealing with awareness of global warming issues.

Although a tribute to a phenomenon from the natural world, this sculpture was achieved utilizing purely digital sculpture techniques. It was designed in Rhino, and cast into a mold made with a 5 axis CNC mill. The 3D printer (rapid prototyping machine) made the connectors, and the laser cutter made additional acrylic spacer components.

EMERGE

2008-04-07T11:59:00.000-07:00

Awed by the scale of the DC Artwalk 2008 project, Joel Erland and I decided to experiment. EMERGE is a reflection on life, emergence, and existence in a world full of self-awareness, innocent irreverence, and mirth. The viewer intuitively sees the groundhog and his insect friends as protagonists- not merely animals. The message is trying to be post-ironic: I emerge, therefore I exist.

ArtWalk 2008 will be unveiled at Metro Center in Washington, DC. Friday, April 11th at 12pm

This large-scale art project sponsored by the DC Commission for the Arts and Humanities will consist of twelve - 24 Ft by 6 Ft billboards depicting 12 artist's interpretation of the theme "Emerge". All are welcome to come to the opening/dedication at 12 noon on April 11th.

ArtWalk is located at 10th street between New York Avenue and H Street, just two blocks from the metro center station. Washington, DC

Video Blog

2008-02-10T19:07:00.000-08:00

We've been putting together a little video to showcase a few of the projects happening recently at Kate Kaman Studio. Hope you enjoy it!

"Maverick"

2007-11-18T18:30:00.000-08:00

This week I flew to Orlando with Joel to a huge conference... all the design firms/fabricators/etc that build things for the amusement park industry. Tons of new ideas. Also, I'm making a new sculpture called Maverick that deals with the topics of nature up in arm, or weaponry used by animals (think the love child of an Xwing fighter and a dragonfly), and experimenting with some NURBS modeling software.

Baltimore Sculpture Project

2007-10-21T19:39:00.000-07:00

I had a new installation take place this week at a busy intersection in downtown Baltimore, Maryland. Look for a new sculpture on a concrete block the size of a Mini Cooper between MICA and the Loads of Fun Gallery, at Howard and North.

The Nebulae are actually three unique sculptures--rotationally cast in translucent resin--that contain LEDs which modulate through the entire color spectrum from dusk 'til dawn. They are suspended on steel tension cables from a 18 foot tall steel pole, and have a photovoltaic battery system which supplies the energy needed to run them completely off the grid.

Special thanks to Kim, Andrew, Jeremy, Daniel Stuelpnagel, the City of Baltimore, and the guys driving the hydraulic boom truck. Special thanks also to David Kessler who featured the sculptures in his recent film about Philadelphia Open Studio Tours (aka POST). See the hyperlink in the title, or go to the link below watch his video:
Philadelphia Open Studios Tour promo video by David Kessler featuring these sculptures:

Snapdragon

2007-09-16T16:38:00.000-07:00

A new commission was recently completed, named "Snapdragon". Some photos are posted of this sculpture that measures 12 feet X 12 feet X 6 feet. It is made with copper tubing and covered with a copper and bronze mesh.

"Snapdragon" is a continuation of the body of work I was doing roughly two years ago. This work was based on forms found in nature. The subjects are very little objects, like flowers, that get transformed into large scale monstrocities. Like a scientist looking under a microscope, I can investigate the interpret the forms on this larger scale, and hopefully say something through them.

I am often fascinated by how a plant or animal will reflect their surroundings. The forms of a cactus fit the desert, just as a stork fits in the canal waters. If I can make a sculpture fit, feel like it really belongs in the place it is in, or has even grown from it, then I am able to say something about the place itself.

I was impressed with the materials used to build the house "Snapdragon" was created for. Everything was so decorated and over the top, I wanted to create a sculpture that reflected this aestetic.

More from the gallery show

2007-05-04T10:50:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures from my opening April 18th. Thank you to everyone who came out! I encourage you to come out to Fishtown and see it if you haven't already. The show is open by appointment.

TO ORDER BOOK CLICK HERE

2007-04-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

ARTIST BOOK
AVAILABLE

KATE KAMAN

78 COLOR PAGES
PHOTOGRAPHS AND TEXT
BY JOEL ERLAND

ORDER A COPY TODAY!

Hardcover $39.95
Softbound $24.95

TO ORDER GO TO THIS LINK:
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/47190

Flotsam and Jetsam

2007-03-13T10:10:00.000-07:00

We installed my show this week at Flotsam and Jetsam-- two days of work but it looks great! Thank you to all who helped out and I hope to see everyone at the opening on April 18th!

LED Sculptures

2007-03-07T18:48:00.000-08:00

I am very excited to be working on a proposal for a courtyard at the Sherman Mills that will incorporate sculptures with embedded LED lights. Here are some photos of the casting and product of our first model.

Overbrook High School Visit

2007-02-12T18:18:00.000-08:00

Last week we had the pleasure of having about forty students from Overbrook High School visit the studios. They came to my studio in small groups and made press molds with clay that we then cast in plaster. It was a lot of fun to have them-- they made some cool work and had great questions. Here are some photos from their visit.

Overbrook High School Visit part 2

2007-02-12T18:14:00.000-08:00

Purple Rain Theater Sketches

2007-01-25T10:19:00.000-08:00

Painting

2007-01-18T19:48:00.000-08:00

New Concept Sketches

2007-01-18T19:46:00.000-08:00

Painting in Rings

2007-01-18T19:27:00.000-08:00

Sculptures made with a Foam Core

2007-01-18T09:52:00.000-08:00

Studio Updates

2006-10-11T11:40:00.000-07:00

Joel Scott and I recently built an addition to my studio. It is a loft/drafting area raised five feet above the ground. The footprint measures about fourteen feet by twelve feet. There is enough room up there for a couch, coffee table, bookshelves and two beautiful drafting tables! Underneath, is a generous amount of storage space for materials such as lumber, steal, tubing, molds and other goodies left over from various jobs. The addition has helped me get rid of the clutter of supplies in all the corners and edges of the studio, opening up much more clean room to make new work. It has created a real transformation of the space.

Sculpture Dedication and Open Studio Tours at The Sherman Mills

2006-09-19T20:28:00.000-07:00

The weekend of October 7th and 8th there will be 17 artists opening their doors to curious visitors at The Sherman Mills in East Falls. Come see painters, potters, glass-blowers, and commercial galleries all in one location. My studio doors will be open along side these various artists. Check out www.shermanmillsarts.org for more information.

Additionally, coinciding with the Open Studios, there will be a dedication ceremony for my work "Growth Rings," which is newly installed at The Sherman Mills. The dedication will be Saturday evening at 5:30. Come on by and join us in celebrating this new work.

"Re-Creation" Public Art for The City of Philadelphia

2006-09-10T16:23:00.000-07:00

In July, we installed a peice of public art for The City of Philadelphia entitled "Re-Creation." Formally, it is a set of two combined ceiling murals and mobiles that greet visitors as they enter into the Recreation Center. Like a kaleidoscope, the shapes of the suspended three-dimensional sculptures move under the ceiling murals, creating a continuously changing composition. The artwork reflects the movement and growth I have observed in this nurturing community atmosphere.

Here are some photos of thr crew who helped install the sculpture.

Joel Erland, Gregory Watson, and Rich Kaman all helped install the sculptures. The murals measured 14'x18', and the sculptures were both 6'x 12'x12'. We were working at an aproximate height of 20 feet.

Mandalas

2006-04-16T21:17:00.000-07:00

"The visualization and concretization of the mandala concept is one of the most significant contributions of Buddhism to religious psychology. Mandalas are seen as sacred places which, by their very presence in the world, remind a viewer of the immanence of sanctity in the universe and its potential in himself. In the context of the Buddhist path the purpose of a mandala is to put an end to human suffering, to attain enlightenment and to attain a correct view of Reality. It is a means to discover divinity by the realization that it resides within one's own self.
Other meanings of mandala

In the West, mandala is also used to refer to the "personal world" in which one lives, the various elements of the mandala being the activities and interests in which one engages, the most important being at the centre of the mandala, and the least important at the periphery. Depicting one's personal mandala in pictorial form can give one a good indication of the state of one's spiritual life." Wikipedia

Tension Fabric Structures

2006-04-16T20:53:00.000-07:00

Tension fabric structures are a way to define and compliment architectural space, diffuse light, create shadow play, or add vibrant splashes of color. There are numerious companies that fabricate, rent and custom design structures to fit any event or marketing need. All these examples are from www.pinkinc.org/

How many sculptures does it take to make ONE?

2006-03-31T10:49:00.000-08:00

The phases of the creative process seem to always transform my work unexpectedly- into something I never thought it would be. What I think I am making or saying will change into something new just as a result of working on it. These changes are usually for the betterment of the piece, they are actually progressions. Maybe all art begins with a "big dumb idea" and by an artist working with it, struggling with it, they come to the essence of that big dumb idea, and the idea drops off. Then all of a sudden, the work speaks, and is genuine because it is purified, distilled, as a result of the process. There are no short cuts here, and everytime, no matter how good you are, you must start with a big dumb idea. Every plant starts with a seed, but those who are satisfied with just the seed, without ever searching for how to grow the plant, are missing the miracle of life and transformation. Life and spirit in art comes from the artistic process, and not just from ideas. The ideas are seeds, plant them, and let them change, that change will show your own growth and understanding coming out in the work.

This is a model for a large "cacoon" sculpture about 10'x8'x8'

So I atarted fabricating it out of pink foam.

Noticed how great the inside was. Like a cave, womb, whale. A transformative space, a space that could be entered. The whole sculpture seemed to be about this interior space. I liked the idea of sculpting the inside of forms instead of the outside, so decided to make it into an 'interior painting.'

Now they are turning into ripples.

collaborative painting

2006-03-31T10:24:00.000-08:00

This is my "cell" group (Joel, Gwen, Barbara, Liz, Nathan, Ed) working on paintings together. We each worked on a 4'x4' painting and put one up a week to create a giant quilt of numbers.

Jesse & Madonna

2006-03-30T15:20:00.000-08:00

This is my wonderful studio mate Jesse Harrington. His current project is a stone Madonna commissioned by the Catholic Church. He is pictured here with the piece during the casting stage, and is now carving it in marble. Stone carving is a loud, but exiting process to be around, and Jesse is a pretty inspiring dude. You can check out more of his work at www.harringtonsculpture.com.

In the Trees

2006-03-25T19:09:00.000-08:00

Do you remember being a little kid, and hanging out up in the trees? I used to have a favorite tree to hide in along my parents long driveway, and I liked it so much because no one thought to look for me up there. It was safe. I could see them, but they could not see me.

I am attracted to this fantasy of being up in the trees. It is always an idealized place- only those who are free are up there- the Swiss Family Robinson, birds, monkeys, lots and lots of insects...fairies.

So, with this fascination comes artistic inspiration. I had an idea a while back to just make art in trees-I dig hanging sculpture, so naturally outdoor environments have limited things to hang sculpture from. So, studying the lines that the branches make- the positive and negative spaces, and wishing I could draw such beautiful compositions has gotten me to thinking of making sculpture that not only hangs from the tree- but is integrated with it. The tree makes the sculpture and the sculpture makes the tree.

Problem with attaching/ anchoring into a tree.

Gaia

2006-03-25T18:33:00.000-08:00

Gaia was installed in September 2005. She sits on an old incinerator (no longer in use, once used for burning trash) in an beautiful estate in Bluebell, PA. I chose the site of the incinerator because I liked the idea of having a sculpture grow out of its site. I admired how the owners of the estate and garden took care of each other and the property.

test

2006-03-25T17:27:00.000-08:00

This is my first Blog ever. It is a test.