"Orb I "
June 2005

Commissioned by Art in Public Places, Inc. of Bend, Oregon. It is located on the round-about island in the intersection of Mt. Washington Dr. and Skyliner Rd. on Bend’s Westside.

The sculpture was fabricated out of 1/4” Cor-ten A588 Weathering plate steel purchased from Chapel Steel of Birmingham, Alabama. Seattle Boiler Works shaped the disks into dishes that I fitted together to make the 72” diameter sphere. After it was assembled in my studio I started drawing all over the sphere. The drawings were/are abstractly related to the rugged wilderness and beautiful complexity of Central Oregon plus my own journalistic additions. When the composition was complete I cut/burned-out the drawings with an Oxy-Acetylene torch. The sphere has a 14” x 3”Dia.sch160 pipe welded to the bottom that slipped into a corresponding hole drilled in the stone. Jeff Ellington of A E Group Civil & Structural Engineering worked out the design criteria. The 5 ton stone was supplied by Ron Kidder of Botanical Developments who also arranged the back hoe and skillful crew to help lift, set and epoxy the sculpture in place.

I would like to thank and applaud the kind, generous and persistent work of Art in Public Places, Inc. to commission and place sculptures though out the fare city of Bend, Oregon.