Wednesday, October 27, 2010


It's really hard to keep up with my favorite physicist-turned-artist. Actually he's always been an artist, and once a physicist, there's no turning back. Pat Monk www.patmonk.com told me about his Earth Huggers sculptures last night. You can see from the pictures that these are embedded in the ground and make charming "ground pieces." If you talk about "wall pieces," why not talk about ground pieces, although no one I know ever does.

From what I can tell, the earth loves the hugs and, who knows? Maybe they will help keep the earth Green, or at least happy.

Pat went on to tell me about his newest phase, which he calls "Underground Sculpture." If you check the link above right now, he has a picture of one called "Double Mushroom" under construction. He told me that he's nearly done now, and that he inverted it and will bury it a couple of feet, so just the mushrooms will be above ground. I'm a little worried that he will go off the deep end and have beautiful sculptures that will have to be unearthed to see them. Sounds crazy, but I know this man.

A few years ago he had an "unsculpture" phase. He very creatively disposed of some of his older sculptures by deconstructing them in all sorts of ways. He hid one inside a big cast concrete fish. Another was a life-sized carved wood woman that he took horizontal cross-sections from and reassembled as a table top, which he covered with glass. Actually that one was very nice.

One of my favorites of Pat's sculptures is a stainless steel piece about 18 inches long, shaped like a teardrop. The pointy end is in the ground. He claims it's the a switch the he throws to get the earth on track each vernal and autumnal equinox.

Pat's my father, so I believe everything he tells me.

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