Travis Pond
More than half of what I do is collecting metal materials. I look for objects with significance and meaning, objects
that have connections to us as individuals and as society as a whole. Some times it is the way in which an object is
found, other times its the people who give it to me where it finds its significance. The metal I use is a part of our human
experience, our history. Some of the materials are specific or emotional such as a grandfather's or great grandfather's
tools that had previously worked on a car or built a family house. Others are historically relevant or share a date from
history like materials repurposed from a 1960's Yamaha dirt bike or WWII tank treads. All of these materials are collected
organized and cut up into somewhat recognizable shapes. This collection of colors and shapes becomes my palette,
my medium. All of which is repurposed into three dimensional form, shape and gesture hoping to ignite a viewer into
an experience of fascination and possibility. For me the work I do is very personal and that is what I get to keep, that is
what I don't share.
When creating a sculpture, the question is never where to start; it is always when to stop. "Never to fall in love with
your artwork" as one famous artist once said. This lends it self to compromising the integrity. In the very beginning
of creation it is of the utmost challenges to capture an emotion, or gesture, or a thought. If this is not found here at
the start of the process of creating it most likely never will. However sometimes the work is entirely about the struggle
and journey not the end as life is such. The collective whole of all the materials repurposed creates a new meaning
as well similarly to that of us as individuals and us as society .. as humanity. Although it is a constant to look beyond
the objects, especially individual pieces as together they form a story and a new meaning and purpose. Each
circumstance, or in this case, each piece, spontaneously connects to the next creating its own poetry in patterns
and shapes.
This collection of repurposed materials specifically organized and arranged is composed into sculptures on a multitude
of scales, hand-held to life size to monumental. Sometimes with a dense intensity on a flawless line of detail with
muscle tone and skeletal structure. Other times my sculptures are a suggestion of movement or gesture with precision
and a suggestion weightlessness. Some artworks have been described as "brush strokes of steel".
My process nonetheless is always the same yet my approach is different with every individual sculpture. The materials
once chosen are arranged and assembled in a rapid fashion, sometimes and very often spontaneously as if the
sculpture is dictating what it will become, deciding for itself when it is complete.
As these metal are dictated into a new purpose and into a future life in a very fast and spontaneous manner a fluidity of
shape an patterns fade in and out of detail suggesting form and movement Although I control the welds, the individual
objects refuse to be forced into form.
Address: 14134 Donovan Road Oregon City OR 97045
Sculpture
Community: Outer SW Portland
Studio Number: 73
Email: steelpondstudios@gmail.com
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