Entry Details

Rise and Fall of the American Empire

Concept

Like all great countries throughout history, the United States of America came into existence, flourished, and will at some time (or already has, depending on your point of view), lose its pre-eminence.  This set of four vessels represents the stages that it has gone through, using an analogy of the four seasons.

The questions we currently face are:

  1. Where is America on this continuum?
  2. Where is America going to go from here?
  3. If we don’t lead the world, who will?

Method

All the pieces (except summer) are carved with carving and grinding tools, and then dyed with multiple layers of water-based dyes, sanding off much of the dye between applications.  All the pieces (except Summer) are finished with Deft Lacquer, and then buffed between applications.  All the pieces (except Summer) are from rather plain woods, and the original intent of the decoration was to make the piece more interesting by carving and dyeing.

Summer was done last, specifically to complete the set for this contest.  It is not carved, and was colored with an initial coating of cloth dyes, but most of what you see was created with diluted acrylics.  It was finished using Russ Fairfield’s wipe-on finish of equal parts 100% pure Tung Oil, Varnish, and Turpentine, with buffing between coats.  This piece was given the highest sheen of all four.

Spring—Birth of America

Method

This was the first of the four pieces, made in August/September 2004. It is 7” at maximum diameter, and 7” high. It is a plain piece of pine from my neighbor’s yard, and I had turned this hollow form while playing with shapes. The wood was rather ordinary-looking, so I decorated it.

Concept

I had originally named it “Chapin’s Flowers” (based on Harry Chapin’s song, “Flowers Are Red"), but that changed as the idea developed into a series.

Going back to the “Rise and fall of the American empire”, while the birth of the US was a bloody revolution, the concept behind it was one of the most inspiring ones ever conceived by man, and the unique aspect of it is that the Declaration of Independence was written before the revolution started. This formative period in our nation’s history lasted for a long period of time, and did not really end, in my opinion, until another bloody chapter (the Civil War) had been written to fulfill another powerful idea (the Emancipation Proclamation).

Our glorious summer

Method

This is the last of the four pieces, done in August 2006. It is made from Pink Birch, and is 6.5” at maximum diameter, and 5” high. It is the only one of the four that is not carved, and is painted almost exclusively with red, green and yellow acrylics in layers (with sanding) to provide shades. The paint was applied using paint brushes, different kinds of sponges and abrasive. Sandpaper and newspaper were used on the paint while still wet; sometimes paint layers were put on after the previous ones had dried, at other times, acrylic was brushed on top of wet layers, and the two colors were combined and streaked. The piece was finished to a high gloss with multiple layers of Russ’ mixture, and Bealed.

Concept

This piece represents the glory-years of the American Empire. It was a time of prosperity and growth for the nation, when agriculture and industry both boomed. As signified by two natural holes in it, painted black, this came at a price (migrant labor, the Trusts, the excesses of the 20s leading to the Great Depression, the use of Manifest Destiny to justify territorial expansion). But, we also had the abolition of child labor, the creation of unions, the expansion of the middle-class, Presidents who broke the trusts, conserved the land, and who told us that “the only thing we had to fear was fear itself”. This period in American history probably reached its pinnacle with what Tom Brokaw called “The Greatest Generation” that fought in WW II, and then oversaw the rebuilding of Europe and the Pacific.

A Vermont fall

Method

This is made from Birch, and is 6.5” at maximum diameter, and 7” high. I made this after making Spring. It incorporates the bark from the log into the piece. It has a large variety of colors in it, and is shiny. I have always love the vibrant falls that occur in some years in Vermont and other parts of Northern New England, with brilliantly-multicolored leaves that peak for only for a few days, and then, quickly lose their luster.

Concept

America’s fall from its glory days was relatively rapid, occurring between the 60s and the end of the 20th century. The country was wracked by assassinations, torn apart by social changes like the civil rights movement, Roe V Wade, etc., culminating in the loss of our innocence in Vietnam, Watergate and Iran. We also witnessed the overwhelming rise in economic and political power of the Corporation, and its accessory, the lobbyist.

Winter comes to America – First Tuesday in November, 2004

Method

Gingko, 6" high, 7.5" diameter.  It is the darkest piece of all.  The colors change fairly dramatically---in daytime, the lighter shades predominate, with a velvety look to them; at night, and in artificial light, the blacks take over.

Concept

I turned this at the end of October 2004, and originally planned to have it represent summer, thinking that these 4 pieces would be a depiction of Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons”.

Then came the presidential election of 2004, and a few days later, I started to carve and dye this piece, and this emerged, almost without conscious effort or intention  People have a strong visceral reaction to it---it is most-often described as being disturbing.

In my opinion, we are in the firm grip of winter.  After 2001, we became a frightened nation, and the administration has elevated and exploited that fear.  We are a divided nation, and politicians and the media have stoked those divisions.  We claim to bring liberty and freedom abroad, at the same time as we have our own curtailed.  We say we are creating democracy elsewhere, while at home we are destroying the fundamental principles of checks and balances, and separation of church and state---we start to resemble our enemies with their dictators and their mullahs.  Our economic policies ignore the current needs of the indigent and the weak, burden future generations with lower standards of living, while providing benefits to the rich and to the Almighty Corporation.  Perhaps most ominous of all, (in that this has led to the demise of every other prior empire), we are over-extending ourselves militarily, leaving us exposed to multiple threats worldwide, and unable to cope with domestic challenges like Katrina, Social Security and Medicare funding, healthcare and education.

Is there going to be another Spring, or are we in for a long, long winter, as we fight an enemy (terror) who can never be vanquished?