Stainless Steel – Rickey – Six Random Lines (Teda Pilcher)

• Childhood influences as an avid and accomplished sailor on the coast of Scotland
• Formal Education and early career as accomplished painter, muralist, portrait artist and teacher
• Exposed to the theories of Constructivism especially Naum  Gabo
• WWII enlists as gunnery instructor where he is exposed to design and manufacturing of lightweight aircraft materials.
• Observes Calder’s Kinetic sculptures (mobiles)
• What is Kinetic Sculpture?  Depends on movement. real or imagined (Op Art) and often motorized
• Ricky departs from Calder’s mobiles how?
  • More geometric forms
  • No color
  • Use of environment as source of movement
  • Use of Stainless steel not aluminum
• Development of blade sculptures based on the riveting and machining to create finely polished finishes that move silently
• Perfects the theory and practice of the fulcrum principle with the swinging pendulum.  (Weighted rod swinging from fixed point)
• Internal counterweights swing freely in non-intersecting arcs
• Why high grade stainless steel?  Noncorrosive, reflective, strong