Microwave Boat
In April 2014 I was invited by Tacoma's "Queen of Sculpture" Lynn Di Nino, to participate in a sculpture exhibition in conjunction with the Tacoma Maritime Festival. The exhibition was to feature the work of ten artist and was to be a sculpture of a 'boat' that was to be created using recycled or found objects. The boats were to be more beautiful than funky and 75% of the materials the boats were constructed of were to be from found or recycled material. The other 25% of the boats were to be minimal to the structure such as paint and fasteners. Lynn told us that the boats didn't need to float, were to be between two and three feet long and no taller than three feet. Additionally we were instructed to make a small almost invisible way to hold our boats in their correct exhibition position. The Maritime Festival was held in September at the Seaport Maritime Museum on Dock Street in Tacoma.

I struggled with ideas for a design and what materials I might use. I contemplated creating the boat out of twigs as I had made sculptures out of twigs previously. When I passed my idea by Lynn she suggested that twigs didn't feel like used material and encouraged me to continue looking for source materials. As it so happened that week during my morning constitutional I passed a garbage dumpster that was so full a microwave oven was left on the ground next to it. After walking past the dumpster and microwave a few days in a row it dawned on me that nothing suited the theme more than something that had been left off next to a dumpster, and the microwave was that something. Picking up the discarded small appliance I walk the balance of my rout with the Microwave on my shoulder. Once at home I chose to dismantle the microwave, hammer everything I could flat and try to construct my boat out of the resulting carcass.

These photos above show the progress of crafting the boat that resulted in one of the most talked about pieces at the Maritime Festival art exhibition...

To see the series of images of the boat in it's completed state follow this link for final views of my Microwave Boat.

"Microwave Boat"
2014

Boat made of found materials  -  32" X  14" X  24"


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