Evening Delight.
Weathered and rusted steel - 30″ x 22″
By Danno, 2006
The first piece for the winter of 2005-2006. Aged in the snow under the stars and corroded to maturity. Evening Delight.
I am thrilled with the response from everyone who has viewed my art. The feedback here has been overwhelmingly positive and I wanted to take a moment to say thanks. For those of you far away, thanks for taking the time to e-mail me and for those of you who are local, thanks for your kind words in person.
I feel like it’s time for me to explore rusting at larger dimensions. I’ve gone with larger steel panels to produce some new works. The largest panel you see in the above photo is over five feet tall. I can’t wait to get these prepared and into the snow.
Daily, we all swim in an over-hyped stream of media. A stream of information that in all honesty is mostly worthless to me.
Now and then though, something profound occurs. One of these “somethings” happened to me the other day, something that rocked me deep, something that will make me view myself and view life differently.
Creating art by rusting steel with snow.
Winter is here for another year. I always enjoy the snow, it’s one of the reasons I live in Canada. From that first little high I get seeing the first snow fall for the year, to hearing it crunch underneath my feet as move around in it, to sitting cozily indoors and getting mildly hypnotized watching the flakes drift down.
But this year I’m loving it for another reason altogether.
Preparing steel panels for rusting.
After hearing that the metal I need could be weeks away, Dave over at Fehlings Sheet Metal has managed to locate some steel locally. He’s been a good man and has looked after me well. I would recommend the guys over at Fehlings any day.
Content that I don’t have to wait to work on my art, I get started as soon as I get home. Unawares, Karen took this picture of me while the snow was falling. During it’s life on the shelf, the metals seem to pick up a somewhat oily layer - which I like to remove before getting ready for rusting.
My friends back in Australia have commented on the red buck shirt on numerous occasions. Flannel isn’t all that popular in many Australian social circles. I don’t even remember where I got this trusty jacket from but at minus five degrees Celsius, it’s a great friend to get grubby with.
Viva la Vino
Weathered and rusted steel - 25″x19″
By Danno, 2005
I wanted to make the line work on this a little tighter and wrap it around the edges of the panel. After three months of rusting in the summer sun and warm rains of the Okanagan Valley I felt she was ready.
Considering that rust has a life of it’s own, I was pleasantly surprised at how the smaller and tighter lines held up. I feel like the wrap around to the side of the panel gives the piece more presence when it is unframed and will be a technique I’ll be experimenting with more and more.
Offside Suzuki
Weathered and rusted canvas
by Danno, 2005
As a subject for my first experiment of working with rust on canvas, I chose one of my all-time heroes. For decades eco-celebrity and environmental champion David Suzuki, has been fighting to protect our natural world before it’s all paved and McNuggeted and Monsantoed. Suzuki was speaking out before I was born and long before it was even remotely cool to be Green.
In this piece I wanted to illustrate that for all of David’s hard work, his points of view are all too easily brushed aside. Everyday life sweeps us along and his well intentioned views end up buried somewhere in between checking e-mail, paying the bills and getting junior off to school.
I’m glad there are guys like David willing to fight for all of us. I can’t be sure, but my gut tells me the world be a better place with more David Suzukis around.
I’ve ordered a bunch of metal today. New steel to work with. I’m trying to get some second hand fridge doors as well to see what possibilities they might yield.
I’m in love with rust. I love seeding it, and watching it grow. Working with rust is like being a Sheppard; guiding a little molecular flock to graze on specific areas of the steel while protecting other areas.
t’s not like painting, where the artists hand is involved in every stroke. Using this technique, Nature splits the work with me. I create areas where I want the rust to flourish and let the Universe take over from there. The winds, rains and snow all slowly have their effect and corrode the steel as they will.
And that’s what I love about this artistic technique. The unpredictable forces of Nature are at work, contributing in a very real way to each piece in a chaotic fashion that I cannot directly control like a brush or a pen.
Lake Okanagan during winter wind storm.
I’ll leave you with these shots I took last winter down by Lake Okanagan at one of my favorite spots. This was one of the coldest days I’ve experienced in Naramata by a long shot (minus 20 Celsius/minus 4 Fahrenheit). The sun was setting, it was crazy windy and the lake looked like it was trying to freeze. I’m sure it would have the surface wasn’t so turbulent. I took a series of 32 shots that day before my hand and face started yelling at me to get home and warm up.
Wicked lighting and deathly cold.
People will cross your path in life. Most will pass in an anonymous blur. Some will become familiar. A rarer few will become an inspiration to you.
For me, one of these rare and inspirational people is Harvey Jackson. Harvey and I met through our day jobs. While working together we’d often end up chatting about life, the universe and everything. And so was born my relationship with a man who would one day become an inspiration to me.