Star Pointer I (1997 - in progress)
 

This is a work in progress, the first piece of a series I'm calling Star Pointer.  The idea is simply a series of pieces alluding to the possibilities and potential beyond the Earth's sky.  The impetus for the series stems largely from my feeling that people have lost at least some insight and feeling for the possibilities and implications of the Great Beyond because they have pretty much lost sight of the stars themselves.  Out of sight, out of mind.  Of course TV, computers (the Internet!), and parts of civilization have their blame as well, but the main blinder over our eyes at night in our large urban areas is caused primarily by our extensive outdoor electric lighting.  Star Pointer I is probably already about 1.5 years old (started early 1996?), though the picture dates to early or mid 1997.  It was taken at the art school in East Dallas I've been working out of since the beginning, the Creative Arts Center of Dallas.  The piece has been sitting out in front of the school for a good while; I just got some new ideas and decided to continue work on it.  It was originally to be a floor lamp, with stained glass (possibly with star patterns) at one end of the mesh, and a light at the other, to project through the ring and onto a wall.  Now I'm adding some pipes (two long narrow ones and one short fatter one) such that they project out through the ring (sort of like some radar/radiotelescope).  I also plan to add a telescope finderscope-like element coming off the back.  We'll see....

Tom
 

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