This article ran on December 1, 2011 in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News talking about public art in Moscow, Idaho.  Read the full article online.

Moscow Public Art Finalists: Art for the Masses

Three in running for public art project commission

By Alan Solan, Moscow-Pullman Daily News staff writer

Next year at this time, a tiny park at the south end of Moscow will be home
to a new piece of public art.

Three Northwest artists are finalists for the $35,000 commission. The
Artists submissions will be posted on Dec. 10 and will be available for public
comment. The three finalists will make their artist presentations 3-5 p.m. on
Dec. 16 at Moscow City Hall, and the public is welcome and invited to attend.
On Dec. 17, the selection committee will choose the artist for the Wren Welcome
Garden project.

The art will be placed in the Wren Welcome Garden, a quarter-acre park that
forms the southern gateway to Moscow’s downtown business district. The site is
on the north side of Jackson Street, adjacent to Gritman Medical Center and two
blocks from the University of Idaho campus.

The three finalists for the commission are Chris J. Wrench, of Hood River.,
Ore.; husband-and-wife team Jennifer Corio and Dave Frei of Vancouver, Wash.;
and Robert M. Horner of Port Townsend, Wash. » Continue reading “Corio & Frei Finalists for Public Art in Moscow, Idaho”

I love metal when it is richly oxidized, either by the slow force nature or by a much quicker patina process.  Earthy tones are in right now for sure; people love rust, antique bronze and the oil rubbed look. One client wanted large vessels that looked like they were “just pulled out of an old barn, forgotten for decades”.

But I have discovered COLOR.  Light, bright, shiny color.  We live in the Pacific NW where the sun only shines for 3 months…if we’re lucky.  It’s rainy.  It’s dreary.  It’s why so many here suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (and it’s called SAD for a reason).

We could all benefit from a little more brightness in our days, and this is why I have incorporated color into my sculptures.

We achieve our color by powder coating our sculptures, carefully choosing from a dizzying array of hues & textures. The technology has changed tremendously from the days you could only choose from a few basic colors. Powder coating can now compete with lacquer in terms of color variety, plus it’s a greener choice because it contains no solvents. This allows us to keep true to our commitment of treading lightly.

» Continue reading “Bright Colorful Sculptures: Metal with Hue”

In late October Dave and I set off in a 22-ft Penske truck for southern California to install our latest two sculptures in two different juried exhibitions.  First stop San Diego where we installed our piece Sprouted Bumbershoot in the Urban Trees 7 exhibition.  » Continue reading “Two Sculptures, Two Exhibitions, One Long Trip”

Come late October when the rains have started here in the Portland area, Dave and I will be catching a little sunshine in Palm Desert, California. That’s where we will be installing our latest large scale metal sculpture Shapely Two. The piece was juried into the 2010-2012 El Paseo Sculpture Invitational along with 17 other sculptures from around the nation. The art will line El Paseo Drive, adding even more dazzle to the town’s glitzy shopping district. » Continue reading “Shapely Series Ready for Take-Off”

Who’s going to let a little rain stop them? Not the new woman in town in Bremerton, Washington.

Dave and I recently delivered our 6-foot sculpture Despite the Rain to Pam Bykonen, Arts Commission clerk for Bremerton and our main contact for the project. » Continue reading “An Ode to the Pacific Northwest in Bremerton, WA”

Back in February of 2009 we received an exciting email that started like this: 

Dear Jennifer & Dave:  Congratulations!  You have been chosen as one of the artists in the Sculptures on Pacific Avenue Project in Bremerton, Washington!

This kind of news is music to the ear of any artist trying to make it in the public art world.  We had entered a call-for-artists from the Bremerton Arts Commission for seven sculptures to be placed along their main downtown corridor as part of the city’s forward-thinking revitalization plan.  They ended up choosing 3 artists/teams, and specifically asked Dave and me to create a pedestrian-scale version of our sculpture Despite the Rain.

» Continue reading “Public Sculpture for Bremerton, WA”

Now comes the fun part.  I get to take the laser cut steel panels I showed you in the previous post and begin to form them into their intended shape.  When we built the first Shapely I chose to construct an internal armature to support the 16 gauge shell (shown in the next two pictures) . 

   » Continue reading “Shapely Two Progresses”

As we wind down from several architectural projects that have been keeping us hopping, Dave and I are finding the mental space and time to focus on sculpture.  I’ve been busily applying for calls-for-artists (’tis the season) while Dave’s been refining some of my sculpture designs using Rhino 3-d modeling software. 

Lately I’ve been hot on making a Shapely series as an exploration of color and shape.  The first Shapely, created earlier this year, was our foray into pure abstraction.  It was fun playing with simple shapes and bold colors, piecing them together to create an eye-catching form and color combination. 

Here’s the maiden Shapely:

Shapely Two, the sleeker cousin of the original has a more contemporary space age look:

I’m toying with a chartreuse green paired with a deep orange.  The color in this picture doesn’t exactly capture what I’m looking for, and it may well look very different on your screen, but it gives an idea of what I’m considering at the moment.  And I just may change my mind drastically as I get samples from Prismatic Powders and play with combinations from actual powder coat color palettes. 

Stay tuned as Shapely Two evolves from a computer model to a physical touchable sculpture.

The Shapely Series
A childlike fascination with bright colors and puzzle pieces resurfaces as we play with vivid yet simple shapes; piecing them together to create flowing lines and a sensuous, more grown-up form.

We love metal here at Cobalt Designworks and pride ourselves on offering infinite possibilities in custom metal work.  Got an idea?  We’ll help you realize it as long as Dave gets to play with iron, alloys and cool tools, and I get to add some design panache.  The challenge with offering such a wide range of goods is that sometimes sculpture as pure art gets placed on the back burner, yielding to functional art or sometimes just plain function.  The past month here it’s been all about railings, and this week it’s looking more and more like we’re in the sign business.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big believer that more art should be built into everyday objects and I’m glad we get to influence that in our own small way. Not to mention that we’re quite happy to have railing and sign jobs right now. Period.  

But today the art-for-art’s-sake urge hit me like a ton of bricks.  I WANT TO CREATE A SCULPTURE!  Early on when we formed the business Dave and I made a pact to always have at least one sculpture in process at any given time no matter what else we’ve got going on in the shop.  For the past few weeks we haven’t been living up to our promise, so today I started looking through my sketchbooks trying to make the delightful decision of what to bring to life next.  I’ve been hesitant to post raw designs but figured I’d risk it and throw them out there for all to see and give you a little glimpse into the early stages of a sculpture idea.

The above design is second in our Shapely series, a play on big simple shapes and bright bold colors. A bit sleeker than the original Shapely and still open to an infinite array of color choices, I envision it standing 10 feet tall. Here’s the original.

This mermaid design has been in my sketchbook since 2002 and I just happened upon it again. I love seafaring mythology. This sculpture would add to our growing collection of powerfully feminine figures. I look forward to refining the design of the scales and breasts, and exploring different textures for each. This will surely give Dave some new fabrication challenges and a chance to expand his metalworking skill set.

The design below is further along in process; from my 2-d pencil sketch we created a refined 3-d version using Rhino software. It is a possible commission for a client who has an office along the Columbia River with river-themed elements throughout.  The waves will be cast glass, a new process for us.  I’ve taken one casting class, and will no doubt need to practice a bit before working on this piece. 

Which sculpture do YOU think we should build next? Leave a comment and let us know.