Dave Lane » Man Evolves.

Dave Lane

As with all artists in our collection, I invite those who have collected works by specific artist to share pictures of those pieces, and as much detail such as title and dimensions with which you are comfortable. If for no other reason, putting images of collected works out on the Internet makes them accessible to art students who want to know what it is that collectors care about. Many artists work seems to become invisible once they move out of the area in which they have sold their art, move on to other interests, or, sadly grow old, stop painting and/or die. If collected art is to have any real meaning, the images of it must transcend the time in which it is created and sold. I welcome any images sent to me for purposes of being included in these pages. Call me at (916)383-5341. (We answer with a business name (grauhall.com), but it is still us.

For several years in a row, the Art Exhibit at the California State Fair and Exhibition has included very large assemblages by Dave Lane. The works are made mostly of steel gathered from agricultural areas. There is some rust and some paint that had been applied to prevent rust. In many ways, the works are intimidating … even threatening. They are machines in and of themselves … machines made to do the work of the Universe. The work for this year, 2011, is titled Grandma Hejaz. In the Artist’s Statement, Dave writes, “Grandma Hejaz is essentially a large mobile volcano, used to heat planet cones during their construction. Other devices bring in material which is deposited like the cone of a motor, generating a magnetic field to ward off radiation when the planet is complete. The device is ignited only every several hundred years, leaving time for those pine trees to grow up on the ignition cone of Grandma Hejaz. Around these trees, in the north region, the lady fire-folk dance. When it comes time to ignite the machine, the men in the southern polar region begin to migrate north, and when they ‘hook-up’ with the ladies, the cone bursts into flames, igniting the volcano. This burns up the trees and everything! … but leaves the little baby fire-folk to grow up with the trees during the next cycle of ignition in a hundred years.”

Grandma Hejaz

Grandma Hejaz won the Juror’s Award for Mixed Media Sculpture.

Starmaker

In a previous show, the sculpture was titled Starmaker. This one had an appearance somewhat like a furnace. The photo was taken in Dave’s back yard in April of 2005, so it must have been in the Fair in 2004. This one is composed largely of two huge sawblades that could swing back and forth side-by-side like two really scary pendulums. During the Fair, they were wired in place so that they could neither swing nor turn. Prose is written along radial lines of the blades. If memory serves, this was in the Fair in 2002 or 2003. Dave has a sketch book of the things that he wants to make. It is not that everything must conform to the original notions as they were first formed and as he sketched them out. The sketches are like a road map that shows the main thoroughfares, but neglects to mention the side roads … the blue highways as William Least Heat-Moon has called them. Seeming to be at the center of this sculptural solar system are the “poles”. One or two examples: