Sneak Peak (by Aleks)

This is a small detail of one of the paintings I am working on for this show. They will be much more layered and complex than my work usually gets. I want them to be teeming with life and multiplicity. More soon...

Islands in the Stream (by Steve)

Things are taking shape. Finding form.
Weeds have grown out of my sculptures though... this always happens...

Hexes have arrived! (by reiko)

3,500 of them!

I decided to stick with wood and kept the size similar to my prototype but slightly bigger.
Laser cut from Baltic birch plywood. They are 3.5cm x 3mm.

Lots of work ahead.

Directions of ideas (by Aleks)

Been painting, low on words, here are some images.

Thierry Bouet


this via here



which leads me to this via here

Relationships between images which will inform the paintings.

3D 'sketching' (by Steve)

I've done some tinkering, which I consider 'sketches' at this point, of cocoon-like structures.
I started to think of whether I could move away from using wood, because its heavy, and I often use it. I was thinking soft sculptures could be interesting. The soft pink insulation as a real organic feel, and could read as flesh, or body tissue of some sorts.

However, its awkward to work with (you aren't supposed to touch it!) and I'm not down with the way the plastic sheets are encapsulating it at this point. The cocoons look kind of 'ugly' and I'm not sure how I feel about that. So good try, but I may need to move on to other materials...

made with only 'construction materials':
insulation, vapour barrier, tuck tape

Some progress (by reiko)

I have been working on a rough mock up of my project using part of one of the words, "itte". I cut hundreds of hexagon pieces out of foam core and stacked them to the size I liked. For the final project I would like the hexagon pieces to be made out of wood and there will be different patterns of wallpaper covering the tops of the hexagons. I experimented with the heights of the pieces. I wanted to see what it would look like to have them all the same height (the first 2 letters) and also with varied heights (the last 2 letters). I prefer the varied heights but I'm thinking of doing a more gradual change of heights from left to right. I want the wood pieces to be full blocks without the stacked layers but there is something nice about the look of the layers. These words will be hung on the wall as sculptural pieces without a base.

draft in Photoshop

cut hundreds of hexagons out of foam core

rough mock up

Discussions on Public Art

So this isn't related to settlement per se, but I wanted to share a recent email I got from two elementary school kids, who found my website and decided that I would be a good person to ask about public art for their upcoming project.

It's pretty cool and I just thought this should be shown. It took a while to think of the answers. It was hard because I wanted to talk not just about public sculptures (which is what I think they were looking for) but also about how public art could perhaps be defined as anything that involves the community as parts or a whole - which is stuff we've been thinking about with this project as well.

My answers are below the questions:

Dear Steve Newberry,
We are asking you these questions because we are doing a project about Public-Art at school.
1. What size can a Public-Art sculpture be?
2. What materials can you use to make a Public–Art sculpture?
3. What location can Public-Art be?
4. What color can a Public-Art sculpture be?
5. Can a Public-Art sculpture be any shape or design?

1. Any size. But public art is usually outside and you want it to be noticeable, so it is good if it is not too small. I would say at least bigger than 1 foot x 1 foot x 1 foot.
2. You can use any materials, but because public art is usually outside, it is good to use materials that will last for a long time in any type of weather - so materials like cement, metals, bronze, etc are good.
3. Any location, but public art usually wants to be seen by as many people as possible, so it is often found in busy locations, like in public squares, or in front of buildings.
4. Any color!
5. Yes it can be any shape or design. As long as it is not dangerous for people to be around. For example it would be good if there were no sharp edges in a public art sculpture because people could hurt themselves accidentally.