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I think art is wonderful

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because it's everything you've ever known,

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and everything you've ever done

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somehow percolating up,

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working with ideas that you might want to explore.

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And then you can just wake up one morning

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and know what you want to do.

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This is a very unusual art project.

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I got a phone call out of the blue.

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It was from an art consultant 
in the city, wonderful woman.

11
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And she said, "Congratulations, 
you've been selected

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to make an art work for the Frey Foundation

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of the city of Grand Rapids."

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and I said, "Well, what's the site?"

15
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And it was one little corner.

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It was called the "Percent for Art Corner"

17
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of sort of a very tough park, 
or what was left of a park.

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There was a skating rink that 
was in bad need of a repair.

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And I said, "I don't believe an art work,

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one singular object is going to help resolve

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sort of the urban situation

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of what this park is and is not doing,

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but if the Frey Foundation is at all interested

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in having me come in, having 
the art act as a catalyst

25
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to completely rework this park,

26
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I would be extremely interested."

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I think the idea of a skating rink

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is something that just sort of piqued my fancy.

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What I actually wanted to do

30
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was take an idea of sculpture 
and grow it into a park.

31
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I didn't realize I was going to have to work

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as an architect as well,

33
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because the city then required 
two or three buildings

34
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to be part of the site.

35
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A bandstand, a restroom facility,

36
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I'll have put in all the lighting.

37
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Yeah, it's not...

38
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I wonder if you're gonna notice that.

39
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That might be a good North Star.

40
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<v Assistant>okay.</v>

41
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<v ->Right?</v>

42
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And so then we either go deep, deep blue.

43
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Yeah, that works fine for the North Star,

44
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because it's off-blue.

45
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<v ->Okay.</v>

46
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<v ->I'm really curious what this 
looks like with ice on it.

47
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We're soon gonna find out, with ice.

48
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I sort of called this one 
the three stages of water:

49
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solid, liquid, and gas.

50
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So the liquid is a water fountain

51
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that's three feet above you.

52
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A circle covered with water in 
it flows off the front edge.

53
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The mist or the gas fountain

54
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is a ring of mist that'll come up,

55
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and you could almost walk into the mist.

56
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And of course, the ice is the ice skating rink.

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The genesis started with water.

58
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Grand Rapids actually took the 
rapids out of the river there

59
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for flooding reasons.

60
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And I started to play with the idea

61
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of bringing it back a little bit.

62
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The starting of the rings, the terraced rings,

63
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started as, if you took a drop of water

64
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in the center of the pool, and let them come out,

65
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and then it spun into an idea

66
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of as much about astronomy and about the stars,

67
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so it's almost like pulling 
the stars into a pool of water.

68
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It's sort of a reflection of 
the night sky in the pool.

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(group chuckling and chattering)

70
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<v ->All right, this is it. 
Now close your eyes.

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<v ->Wow. This is not bad.</v>

72
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(chattering)
Just be careful, Sarah.

73
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Wow.
(gentle music)

74
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It's a piece that marks a very set point in time

75
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and connects it back to a 
set occurrence in nature.

76
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(ice skater yells)

77
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It's up and running.

78
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The skating rink's actually up first,

79
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and I'll go back in to fine-tune 
the landscaping, the trees.

80
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My sculptures deal with 
naturally occurring phenomena,

81
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and they are embedded and very closely aligned

82
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with geology and landscape 
and natural earth formations.

83
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It's all about a play back and forth

84
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between inside works and outside works,

85
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all trying to capture the landscape.

86
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This is a group of atlases.

87
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I bought about ten old atlases.

88
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And I started making these 
landscapes, craters, in them.

89
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So this one sort of has a double crater.

90
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So you go past through the first crater,

91
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and there's a little island, 
and you open it to the island,

92
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and I'll make it more complex 
island geography here,

93
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which is what's going on.

94
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So much of my artwork is very 
large-scale outdoor works

95
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that I like to retreat into the studio

96
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and make a lot of the work myself.

97
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And the trouble is the outdoor works

98
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and the architecture tends to take up all my time,

99
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so I find it very hard, as a struggle,

100
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to be able to come back here and do this.

101
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This is like the first work 
I've done in a little while.

102
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It's terrible.

103
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(cat meows)

104
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We have gone through a period 
in art and architecture,

105
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I think, modernity, industrialization,

106
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which allowed for specialization.

107
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There are very few architects 
who are also solidly,

108
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have a gallery.

109
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Part of me is an artist.

110
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The other part of me builds architecture.

111
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I'm not at all wanting to have a large practice.

112
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I don't want to practice architecture.

113
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I love building a few buildings.

114
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So I have to be very careful what I take on.

115
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I've done some works that are extremely public

116
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and extremely well-known,

117
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and I think had I not done the Vietnam Memorial

118
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and come out with the body of 
work that since has come out,

119
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I would have been able to be called an artist

120
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about five years sooner.

121
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But because I had done the Vietnam Memorial,

122
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it was like, "Oh, you make monuments,"

123
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whatever that means.

124
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I mean, look at that one, the biggest one.

125
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Dee-dee-dee-dee.

126
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Dee-dee-dee.

127
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I don't think I woke up one day and said,

128
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"Oh, I'm going to be an artist 
on some days and an arch..."

129
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It was more I couldn't choose between the two,

130
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nor did I choose to blend them.

131
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You might be able to do this better than me.

132
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It's taken me a body of work 
to see how I am developing.

133
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<v Acquaintance>I don't think so.</v>

134
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<v ->No, it's solid, it's totally solid.</v>

135
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It's been on for an hour now.

136
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It's kind of surreal.

137
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I really want to make this piece.

138
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I'm actually playing with 
the idea of taking this idea

139
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and creating a work out of recycled rubber,

140
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calling it "Playground."

141
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It will be twice as big

142
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as the untitled topographic landscape,

143
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and kids can play on it.