Merlin’s Compass
Robert Coon
Vero Beach, FL
2010
Fabricated and painted aluminum
9′ 5″ x 8’ x 8′ x 4′
Artist Comments
We are verbal creatures. Many of us speak one language, some of us speak several languages, and a few speak many languages. In any case, we all use words to communicate in our everyday world, indeed in our everyday thoughts. However, we are also visual creatures…nearly all use, in truth… depend on, our visual sense and visual sensibilities every day…every waking minute. The irony is that we seldom have a real need to translate the visual into the verbal. My sculpture is conceived as shapes, textures, and colors, that is, arrangements of these elements in a three-dimensional form. This three-dimensional arrangement is its own raison d’être. These sculptures begin as thoughts and work their way into real objects. I often record ideas in my sketchbook. I do not write words, but rather draw images of what I have “seen.” I make visual decisions and choose to make a sculpture…a real version of the visual images. I almost always fabricate these real versions from sheet aluminum and paint them. The paint not only protects the metal from corrosion, but also allows me to make sculptures in color(s). Color is extremely important to me…I intensely respond to color that is around me and I cannot conceive of making a work of art that is not in some form of “color.” My sculpture is an arrangement of form that visually excites me, perhaps rhythmically, formal or informal, stable or precarious. The act of composing a work leads to new work, to a variation on a previous work, and a never-ending NEXT sculpture. Probably because of this, I tend to work in series, that is a group of works that all relate to a central idea. I hope that the viewer can approach my work with an eye and mind that “looks for” visual interests and that sees an object that is whole, and appealing, and perhaps a little exciting.
Robert Coon