I use a variety of materials from industrial America. Some — such as lighting components and fasteners — I buy new. For many of the colors and shapes and textures I work with, however, there are no commercial sources. Things for sale in antique stores and flea markets generally have a shopworn, picked-over feeling, and I don’t feel comfortable working with stuff that someone else already perceives as interesting or nostalgic or otherwise saleable. So I keep my eyes open. Sometimes an old non-franchised hardware store or a general store out in the country will still stock some classic object, something reminiscent of the ways that tools and materials were used back when people expected things to last and rarely threw anything away.
Generally the materials that I use have been part of some well-built object that was loved and valued and respected until for some reason it could no longer be used for its intended purpose. You can find such things anywhere: washed up on the beach, atop a pile in a scrap-metal yard, peeking out of a dumpster, or place lovingly out on the curb by someone who just couldn’t bear to mix them in with the household garbage.
After cleaning up one of my finds, I may immediately disassemble it. More often, I let the whole piece rest until I have a sense of its particular qualities and how they could integrate with other objects that I have stored in my studio. I have wonderful pieces that have been sitting around for years, waiting to be part of some yet undreamed-of combination. Other things demand to be worked with as soon as soon as they hit my workbench. A few pieces have so much individual power that I may never find the precise materials that will complement them.
Each piece that I show is typically the result of many months of trial and error, and intense evaluation: What colors and shapes and textures and densities work together best? Does a certain combination bring out previously unheard-of resonances? How does it speak? What does it say? Is it new? Will it last? I suggest that the pieces you’re seeing have passed the test.