Author Archives: Tom Harold

RBS Artist Interview Series – In production!

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A month back I brought you a wonderful interview with the talented RBS artist Stephen Jendro. I stated at that time that I would be releasing one new artist interview every third Thursday of the month. While that was admirably ambitious on my part, I didn’t fully realize how challenging it would be. In order to bring you high quality material that I am gathering from all across the country (and perhaps around the world!), I’m going to have to slow down the timeline a bit. There’s lots happening in that expanded time frame, however!

While there will be a wait, I can honestly tell you it is going to be worth it. I’ve been using much of my time lately to interview two more amazing rolling ball sculpture artists and to come up with some really fascinating stories from each of them. I have also been lining up further interviews for the coming months with other stunningly talented artists. It’s really going to be amazing. I’m so stoked about the opportunity to bring this to you! These artists are helping to provide a look at the emergence of a modern art form in their own words. It’s fascinating! Plus, if you’re a creator, yes, there will be building tips thrown in as well. You know you love it!

This is a minor gear change, but it will be for the better. I look forward to bringing you some A+ material that’s really going to shed some light on the unique and fascinating world of rolling ball sculpture and those who make it!

Of course, none of this will affect blog posts on other topics related to my art. You can still expect to see those popping up, so stay tuned!

The Underrated Value of Asking for Help

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I’d like to say I never need to ask for help, that I figure out every problem I have on my own. I think I used to spend lots of time trying to figure things out on my own. I just hated asking for help lots of times, and it didn’t serve me well. In the past year I’ve had a couple of experiences that reminded me of the value in asking for help.

A little over a year ago I was tasked with creating a rolling ball sculpture that was going to be displayed in the mayor’s office. The timeline to create the sculpture was extremely short, just days, and this is with me working a full-time job already. I had the entire piece structurally complete from one end of the other, but I was having teething problems. There was a large spiral that wound down and then merged directly into a coil. It was a really cool effect, but it wouldn’t work properly. Mostly it was fine, but on rare occasion one or two marbles would inexplicably just fall through from the top of the coil straight out the bottom. This isn’t something I could display with any sort of pride. With rolling ball sculpture, if it doesn’t quite work, then it doesn’t work, period.

After testing and tweaking and having only slightly better results, I realized time was too precious to lose any more of it. I needed help, fast. I posted to the Facebook group for rolling ball sculpture, describing my problem. In an instant I had builders from all over the world, some with years of experience, lending a hand. Ultimately I can credit Matt Gaulden with offering some key advice about the size of the coil. I had to cut out the coil and replace it, but it worked like a charm. Matt is a great artist who has a host of instructional resources for building rolling ball sculpture. You can check out his work and his online assistance here.

The sculpture, “Meer-col,” was a huge success at the mayor’s office. In fact, I was told by one of the office staff that it was such a big success they had to move it out of the common office area and into the mayor’s conference room, because “too many people were enjoying it.” Check out the video and see for yourself!

More recently, I needed to do some work on the blog. Time wasn’t as crucial, but it was definitely a case where sooner was preferable to later. My WordPress skills are miniscule compared to my sculpture skills. I wanted to do it on my own, and I’d intended to do it on my own, but I’d been intending for months, and it was obvious that it was going to take me too long to figure it all out by myself. I was out of my element. I went to my online group for working artists, asked for help, and Divinity Chan offered to lend a hand.

Divinity was a big help. She was very patient and listened to my desired changes. Patiently she walked through what she was doing, explaining how she was making changes and allowing me to take notes. We fixed errors and made improvements in a matter of minutes – tasks that would have taken me hours of precious free time to work through on my own. As she worked through the process she taught me how to make future changes on my own. “I’m all about empowerment,” she told me.  Now I have not only an improved site, but the ability to make future updates myself, which is perhaps the most helpful thing of all. If your WordPress site is giving you a headache and you need someone to help relieve the pain, Divinity is an excellent resource. You can reach her at divinityatdivinitychandotcom. Divinity is also a wonderful artist, and I’d be remiss in not including a link to her excellent art work. You can see her vibrant paintings at DivinityChan.com.

I have had to learn a lot of skills to make my art, but one that has proven very valuable to me even before I started making rolling ball sculpture was the skill of asking for help. It’s all about practice. The more you do it, the easier it gets. Save yourself grief and needless frustration. Start practicing. The benefits are fantastic.

1K Followers on IG and Featured at The Metagrobologist!

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tomharoldinstagram1K

I had a couple of really cool things happen to me today that I wanted to share. First, as you can see above, I reached 1,000 followers on Instagram! Considering that I can’t tie my public awareness to any major films, television shows, hit records or even a shout out from my local newspaper, that’s really pretty damn good! If you’re not following me on IG, get on there and find out what all the fun is about! You get to see tons of in-progress shots and little video clips of me makin’ the marbles do their magic.

Secondly, remember that little bit up there about public awareness? Well, that’s changing! Right around the same moment that a guy on IG with the user name “highheeledchicken” was tapping the “Follow” icon, a web site called The Metagrobologist was featuring me on their web site! Metagrobology is the study of puzzles, so the site is all about studying and having fun with puzzles. Since there are many mechanical puzzles that are also very artful, and since my work contains puzzle-like features at times (“Can you figure out which track the marbles are going to take based on the various switches and paths that are available?) they felt it was a good fit. They called my work “amazing,” and “Really cool!” right here! It’s a pretty fun web site, and they take their puzzles both fun and seriously, both of which I can relate to very well! Stop in and have a look!

tomharoldmetagrobologist

It’s a life’s calling, Part 2 – Interview with RBS artist Stephen Jendro

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Last week introduced the first in a series of interviews I will be conducting with noted rolling ball sculptor artists from all over. I had realized that the art world and the world at large was missing out on a great deal of information about this wonderful art form and the amazing individuals who are creating it. I aim to change that with these interviews, to provide a fuller awareness and begin the process of creating an historical reference for future creators and fans of rolling ball sculpture.

I previously brought you part one of a wonderful interview with the talented Stephen Jendro in which he discussed how bad art leads to good art, working with the Titan IV rocket program, how the Watts Towers inspire framing and sculpture research at the dawn of the internet.

This week in part two Stephen will reveal his biggest challenge when building rolling ball sculpture, what stresses him out most about building RBS, tips for beginners, safety and problem solving. And the birds show up again.

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TH: Aside from your welder, what is your favorite tool?

SJ: My little Pandora radio. Not much gets done without the tunes, seriously.

TH: What do you listen to?

SJ: Todd Snider, Tom Waits, Amos Lee, John Prine.

 

TH: In terms of building rolling ball sculpture, what do you enjoy most about the building process?

SJ: I think what I enjoy the most is that, in order to build one of these things there’s five or six different, discrete activities, and I enjoy them all, and I feel very lucky about that. It’s like the scenery changes. It’s not just one task. I could spend hours, days, sketching things out, whether it’s a new idea or a new sculpture, and that’s an activity unto itself –where I get to sketch and draw ideas. Then I get to physically go out and buy steel. I love doing that. I love going out and picking up steel and parts and bolts and washers. Continue reading →

It’s a life’s calling, Part 1 – Interview with RBS artist Stephen Jendro

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Rolling ball sculpture is a fascinating, complex and relatively new art form. Currently, there are a number of outlets on the web from which one can mine information about it, but it is largely technical in nature. I have realized that the creators, the ones who breathe life into this wonderful form of kinetic expression, are often left in the shadows, information on them being provided only by a few scant “About Me” descriptions on web pages or random web posts. I have decided to do something about this lack of information, to shine some light on these wonderful creators, and in the process, to provide the world with a fuller view of the magnificent art of rolling ball sculpture.

To that end, I am pleased and excited to present you with the first in a series of interviews I will be publishing featuring highly talented rolling ball sculpture artists. Far more than simple “How’d you make that?” FAQs, these interviews will focus on each artist’s backgrounds, and their different abilities and experiences that have led them to this unique and captivating creative outlet.  Yes, there will be technical information shared – I won’t go without missing that opportunity – but an equally valuable opportunity will be seized to present the artists and their art in as full a capacity as possible. The aim is to broaden the recognition and understanding of the artists and the art form itself. It’s a first of its kind literary and artistic project for rolling ball sculpture, and it’s going to be great stuff! There will be a new interview posted on the third Thursday of the month.

Our inaugural interview is with accomplished and skilled RBS artist Stephen Jendro. Stephen credits a childhood gift from an uncle with igniting his fascination with rolling ball sculpture. He has traveled the world, worked with rockets, owns 80 birds, and considers singer/songwriter Todd Snyder to be an important tool in the work shop. But how does this add up to amazing kinetic art? Read on to find out!

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TH: Where are you from?

SJ: Carnation Washington, about 20 mi east of Seattle where Carnation sweetened condensed milk comes from. I was born in southern CA and then the family moved to New Zealand and then Australia when I was a kid. Then I came back to southern California. So I was educated in the British schooling system, but I’m an American.

 

TH: What were your big interests when you were younger?

SJ: Plastic train tracks when I was two. When I was four I got an Erector set. I remember building a Ferris wheel when I was four. I remember that once I realized the nuts went on the bolts, it was amazing. You could connect stuff! And then Lego, lots of Lego and slot car sets. Things with tracks and motors and kineticism, lots of slot car tracks. Later, a lot of skateboarding. When I think about all the skateboarding I did, I realize that I was the marble!

 

TH: Did you have any schooling in the arts?

SJ: No. A friend called me “autodidactic.” I got out of high school and went straight to work, and I’m self taught on everything.

 

TH: What is your day job?

SJ: I’ve been at Microsoft for 15 years as a web site manager and web site producer.

 

TH: When did you first discover rolling ball sculpture?

SJ: When I was ten my uncle brought home a brass rod rolling ball sculpture that I think he got in San Francisco. That was a good place for that kind of art in the 70s. It had one-inch steel balls, and I played with it way more than any normal child would play with it. And here we are forty years later, and I can still remember – I could build that thing from memory, and as a matter of fact, I might build that thing from memory yet.

 

TH: Do you know who built it?

SJ: No, I’ve tried and tried. If I had to guess I’d say it was a Stan Bennett. I do remember that it was brass or bronze rod, and it had a name on it, but it had little people – little weld-dots out of leftover pieces of rod, a blob for the head and blobs for the hands. They were just stuck on there. But I have no idea who really did it.

 

TH: What do you recall really drew you to that sculpture? Continue reading →