This 15” x 10” x 4” wall sculpture was originally the back part of the “Mother wall” from BIO-CRAFT, my H.R. Gigier inspired miniature terrain line. I had a design for only for the front of the Mother Wall. When it came to the back I was just “winging it” so to speak. Often times my winging it comes out better than me trying to keep close to a design. For me this piece just happened without me thinking or concentrating very hard on what I was doing. Perhaps that is the best method of sculpture. I call sculpting without a design, “Freedom Sculpting” because I’m free to do whatever I want. Some of my favorite pieces usually come from me just noodling some clay (or digital polys in this case) with a vague idea of what I want. Once the Mother Wall was done I kept looking at the back thinking wow, this part looks better than the front ! Spiritus Vigliem is Latin for “ Spirit Sentinel”. This sculpture is a guard for your very soul, keeping negative entities at bay. This piece sold at the Copro Nason Gallery in the Conjoined 10 Show.

Below is an image of the “Mother Wall”. I’m still happy with how she turned out even though it was a struggle for me to get this particular piece finished. I still have not painted one, but need to.

Spiritus Vigliem was printed on my Peopoly Phenom 3D printer. This was one of the very first pieces I printed and I wanted maximize the size the machine can handle. I wear a mask during clean up because I use 99% isopropal alcohol, it gives me sinus problems if I don’t. Nasty shit! Once the piece is cleaned of uncured resin all the building supports are carefully removed. The piece then needs a final cure in UV light. At this point I look at surface detail and clean up/sand any imperfections. As soon as I think the piece is as perfect as I can make it, I create a silicone case mold to make reproductions in different materials like translucent resin. The mold worked perfectly in my 3x3 rotocaster. It’s a tedious process but a necessary evil to bring a digital sculpture into the real world.

I came up with the Idea of making this sculpture into a musical instrument after having a reject casting. I was aiming for a certain color look but was disappointed with the results. Having it laying around gave me license to make it into something new! I call this iteration the “Invocation Synth” an organic electronic instrument. Above is a shot video of my son playing the 24 touch sensitive keys. It’s made using dual Bare Conductive Touch boards. The boards are basically Arduino programmable circuit boards with midi instruments. After a lot of soldering, and figuring out how to get all the parts and lights into this only 4” deep sculpture the INVOCATION SYNTH was born. I’m still working on this and recently got the backings laser cut out of some black acrylic with some beautiful etching thanks to my talented wife Erica and her graphic art skills. I’ll have more to come on this crazy synthesizer soon!