Sometimes I just feel like I’m blessed with uncountable awesomeness in my life.
Tuesday my brother sent me an email with “Sculpture material” in the subject line. Now, my brother doesn’t do any sculpture that I know of, so I wondered what this could actually pertain to. I opened it immediately. “I found these in Ryan’s basement. I thought you could use them for your sculpture. They would look cool all rusty and beat up like they are.”
Attached was a photo of two objects that were definitely rusty and dirty. They looked like giant drill bits, the sort that are used for earth or concrete work. I couldn’t exactly tell how big they were, but they were maybe a couple of inches around and about two or three feet long. Nice.
“There’s one more,” he added. “I’ll bring them over later.” More nice.
Thursday my brother stopped by my place only moments after I got home. “Check ’em out, man,” he said, laying two of them down on the floor of my back hall. “Aren’t they cool?”
Oh, yes. Yes they are:
With my trusty beverage fuel can for reference, you can get an idea of how big these things are. Ben opined that the middle one and the one on the right were actually one piece way back in history, and at some point rent assunder. The one on the left is just a shorty, poor thing. I wonder if it ever felt insufficient in the bed of the construction truck next to the other, longer augers.
Clearly, my brother rules. It touches my heart that he said, “I saw these three rusted, broken, dirty things, and I thought of you.” That’s love, dudes. These pieces of cast iron are now destined for greatness at my hands. The only real problem now is that I have to create an entire sculpture specifically in which to use them, maybe even two separate ones. I’ve never exactly shied from more sculpture work, though, have I?
Dude, your brother totally rocks. I can just see a marble careening around those spirals. It makes my head go in tiny circles just thinking of it.
Whoa! Old, rusty, dirty stuff! And lots of it! A marble running down the spirals does sound cool. Do you have any ideas about what you’re going to do with them?
I love old things like that. My uncle used to have an old townhouse on Magazine Street (a good, historic New Orleans street), and one day my sister Stephanie and I were playing in the backyard and we found these horse shoes with square nail holes. My uncle said that before the house was built there was a fire department on the property in the mid 1800’s, back when horses pulled the water trucks. Stephie and I were enthralled. He allowed us to excavate a part of his yard and we found another horseshoe, and an old key, like a fancy, loopy old key. We were in heaven.
Nice remodeling!
Heather,
My brother does totally rock. He said his friend was going to take them to the metal salvage place, and now they’re all mine!
Gen,
I have some ideas, nothing concrete yet. It’s probably a project for the summer. It’s going to require that I learn some new skills. Could be scary. Actually, I take back that first sentence – I did have some thoughts about what to do with it last night. I may try and do this as a lawn sculpture. Maybe…if I can figure out a way to keep people from vandalizing it. I’d love to have a hand-operated one on my lawn.
Finding old stuff as a kid was just the greatest, which is why I’ve decided to not grow up in that area. Ask anyone who’s been around my house! Okay, perhaps I’ve grown up just a bit. I have gotten rid of things from time to time, because I’ve realized that getting rid of things I’m not using makes way for things that could possible be even more awesome and I would actually be able to use them.
Thanks on the remodeling. This is more evidence of my brother’s awesomeness. He is completely responsible. More on this later.
Dude you totally amped up your site! Awesome!
Your brother sounds really cool. (Of course he is. He’s YOUR brother.) Just wanted to say that.
It’s funny, you see those giant, rusty, dirty drill-bit things and think “art” and the first thing I thought of when I saw those pics was “Wow, that would make a really cool weapon in my next story.”
Obviously, I am not the normal one.
-Liv
P.S. Kevin is MIA again. WTF? (Just had to get that out of my system.)
Tom!
Love the new site.
Oh, and I love the augers. I want to hear all about what you’re going to do with them. What a great brother. I like your idea for the yard. Anchor them in concrete or something. No one will walk away with them.
Olivia,
Yeah, my brother rocks. I have no problem with large drill-bit-looking things being used for weapons. If someone walked into my house attempting to rob it, I think these might be dispatched for a little justice!
Tina,
The new site is grooviness. I’m glad you like that yard art idea. When I pull out of the driveway in the morning I look at this one spot in the yard and think, “Maybe there. Maybe I’ll put it there.” Yeah, if I put it in concrete that would work, and I was thinking of using Lucite or some kind of polycarbonate to surround it so it wouldn’t get destroyed by the drunk kids on the weekends. It could work.