Terry Welker

Inspiration:
I'm an architect/sculptor creating lightweight kinetic and suspended sculpture. This comes from my passion for architecture, poetic space and meaningful places. I work to understand and extend visual languages by animating form, space and surface with motion. My goal is to find shared identification of memorable forms, associations, multiple meanings and the simple enjoyment moving forms in space. My primary inspiration comes from natural forces and forms by drawing on my memory of motions, shapes and colors in order to relate to nature without direct imitation. This allows me to create abstractions without the constraint of literal interpretation. I also see the process of creation as an intentional act of 'making' that comes from experimentation, trial and error, letting form come from the nature of materials, tools and human hands. Size, scale and context are deceptively difficult but serious considerations that guide my decisions for any placemaking installation. I prefer to create or rely on existing natural daylight and ambient room light to enhance forms and let them have a “conversation with the sky.” Kinetic and suspended sculpture brings a unique set of composition challenges. The character of 'lightweightness' reveals the inherent challenge of gravity, delicate balance and air movements. Through trial and error, I push the structural limits of materials as lines, arcs, curves and complex forms. Using predictable and unpredictable forces I find that 'near misses' provide a simple but elegant strength while 'soft collisions' enable more complexity or even chaos. The accidental nature of these movements allows people to move beyond simple viewing and become unconsciously, viscerally engaged in the enjoyable act of "watching" and "staring."

In Studio:
I create works in series beginning with small maquettes and random experiments. This allows me to fully explore an idea and push the limits of materials with numerous variations. Many of my larger works evolve from series as commissioned pieces with a particular size and scale created for a specific place and setting. My most commonly used materials are stainless steel rods and custom colored anodized aluminum or coated aluminum because of its anti-corrosive and vivid color retention qualities. I also like experimenting with new alloys, coatings, unusual materials, old materials, and found objects, sometimes combining them to find new forms. The nature of these materials often requires 'cold connection' techniques such a riveting or bolting in lieu of heat welding. Some sculptures also incorporate high quality glass crystals (Swarovski) or cast acrylic prisms.
As a Professor of Architecture, it is common for me to begin with research and listening; sharing ideas about my work, and/or engage students and the public during the creation of new works, in order to gain a fuller understanding of local cultural values. My objective is to enhance the meaningfulness of new works through shared experiences and learning.

Example project story in detail - Fractal Rain:
https://www.codaworx.com/projects/fractal-rain-dayton-metro-library/