In the slideshow below, I tried to capture relevant images of the process undertaken to create the postbox stand that simulates a runner’s legs while running! From the initial proposal sketch (chalked on the studio floor) through various fabrication steps to the final installation, you can see the piece unfold.
Note that runner’s feet are made of 3/4 inch thick steel plate. The left foot (the runner’s plant foot) is flexed to launch the runner to the next stride. In order to create this effect I had to bend the 3/4 inch steel plate as one’s foot would bend. In the slideshow images below you can see the 3/4 inch steel plate heating in the forge. The plate had to get red hot before I could “flex” the foot. This process consumed several pounds of coal and took over 3 and 1/2 hours to complete. But, after a dozen blows–the hardest I could deliver–from a 12 lb sledge hammer, I finished the job and the foot was flexed.
Here’s a curiosity: Ten minutes after I completed the postbox installation, the U.S. Postal Service came by with the day’s delivery. . . the inaugural mail delivery was captured in the attached slideshow images. And yet another curiosity, while this work was sketched on the studio floor in early summer, a full two years ago–before the commission arose–I sketched the following image (click here) reminiscent of a sculpture yet to be.
Now enjoy the process of the current sculpture unfolding in the slideshow below.
tcmsculptures
tcmsculptures 
