Taking Flight
Woven wire
Venue: Devos Place
Artist: Michael Gard
Age: 41
Home City: San Francisco, California
What was your inspiration for the piece?
“…I set about making the lightest metal object ever made at that size and I scaled that to 12 foot and that’s what resulted and we successfully floated that around Grand Rapids.”
How long did it take to create your entry?
“About 2000 hours.”
What was the hardest part about creating your entry?
“Everything, it was incredibly challenging…I had to create a piece of machinery to transfer it from the small scale to the larger scale, had to figure out a way to do the wiring system… I had to make fiberglass molds that could hold 500 pounds of wax and then tumble on a jig so that they would cool evenly from the outside and pour out 350 pounds of wax…”
How are people reacting to your entry?
“They love it, but they don’t understand it…they’ve never seen a piece of aluminum sculpture.”
What would you do with the money if you won?
“Spend it making more art, looking after my family.”
By Jacquelyn Zeman
