Artist
William Graziano
Location: Newhard's
Sculpture Title: “Powder Blue Thunder Bird Pagoda"
Materials: chromium plated Ford Thunderbird hubcap, wood, plastic tubing, light fixture, cart tire,metallic tape, press type, and acrylic paint.
I had been trying to decide what to do with the beautiful hubcap I had been given to “transform” into an art object, when a friend visited for dinner one evening. Our dinner conversation lead to “what to do with this hubcap ” We had fun thinking about the possibilities. A couple of days later he sent a nice thank you for dinner and a Haiku that he had written about the hubcap.
His poem inspired this little monument to the Thunder Bird Hubcap, “Powder Blue Thunder Bird Pagoda”
A Summer Eve
She left in my powder Blue
Thunder Bird
- lost hub cap
a metallic haiku by Mark Phillip Stone
Artist Statement:
Recently retired from teaching art for 40 years. I am now able to devote my time and energy to creating art. Sculpture has always been my greatest interest. I enjoy working with a variety of materials and examining an object in relation to light, the object dissected, the object constructed on geometric principles and finally the object and the subconscious. My latest sculptural work, metal forged iron, employs traditional artist/blacksmith techniques attempting to express ideas about nature.
I was interested in participating in the Warwick Summer Arts Festival’s Fused Hubcap Art Exhibition because the idea of giving ordinary objects new meaning has always intrigued me. I thought it would be interesting to attempt doing this with a hubcap and seeing where it might lead my imagination sculpturally. Always a fan of hubcaps and surrealism, my entry hopefully “fuses” these passions.