0:00:47.240,0:00:49.720
<v ->I don't generally think [br]about large audiences.

0:00:49.720,0:00:52.280
I think about, who would I like to show this to?

0:00:52.280,0:00:53.640
Who would I, that came over to visit,

0:00:53.640,0:00:56.825
would I say, "Let me show you this"?

0:00:59.920,0:01:00.560
(sculpture grinds)

0:01:00.560,0:01:02.360
If it meets that,

0:01:02.360,0:01:04.640
then I figure a lot of people can look at it.

0:01:04.640,0:01:06.040
Okay, okay, okay, okay.

0:01:06.040,0:01:07.480
Okay, okay, okay, okay.

0:01:07.480,0:01:09.723
Okay, okay, okay.

0:01:09.723,0:01:10.480
All right, okay, okay, okay.

0:01:10.480,0:01:12.360
Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

0:01:12.360,0:01:13.720
Okay, okay, okay.

0:01:13.720,0:01:15.480
All right, okay, okay, okay,

0:01:15.480,0:01:18.440
okay, okay, okay, okay.

0:01:18.440,0:01:20.160
Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

0:01:20.160,0:01:21.418
Okay, okay, okay, okay.[br](humming)

0:01:23.162,0:01:32.028
(humming and trilling)[br](camcorder beeps)

0:02:09.600,0:02:13.311
Last winter we had a lot of mice in the studio.

0:02:14.902,0:02:16.622
And I got rid of most of them.

0:02:17.320,0:02:19.520
Then I was sitting around here,

0:02:19.520,0:02:21.216
not having a very good project.

0:02:22.480,0:02:26.880
So I set up this infrared camera at night

0:02:26.880,0:02:31.190
in different places, and see what happens.

0:02:32.280,0:02:41.266
And I'm getting, oh, usually [br]three or four different events,

0:02:41.266,0:02:41.770
(Bruce chuckles)

0:02:43.055,0:02:44.623
things happening with the mice,

0:02:44.800,0:02:48.480
a mouse or two coming through, and the cat.

0:02:48.480,0:02:50.849
And so far they've never [br]happened at the same time.

0:02:52.200,0:02:53.640
And then every morning when I come in here

0:02:53.640,0:02:57.920
and replay what's been captured,

0:02:57.920,0:03:00.000
it's like a little meditation,

0:03:00.000,0:03:02.347
because you can't really watch [br]any one part of the screen

0:03:03.480,0:03:05.520
or you'll miss something [br]that happens in another part,

0:03:05.520,0:03:07.602
because it happens pretty [br]fast and it's real short.

0:03:09.280,0:03:13.920
So you have to kind of not watch anything

0:03:13.920,0:03:16.067
so that you can be aware of everything.

0:03:31.783,0:03:33.873
(footsteps)

0:03:37.600,0:03:38.829
This is...

0:03:42.200,0:03:44.760
oh, a project I said I'd get involved in

0:03:44.760,0:03:47.480
probably almost a year and a half or two years ago

0:03:47.480,0:03:50.000
for the Wisconsin sesquicentennial.

0:03:50.000,0:03:52.720
And it's a portfolio of prints

0:03:52.720,0:03:54.800
by artists either from Wisconsin

0:03:54.800,0:03:57.760
or we've had some lived in Wisconsin

0:03:57.760,0:03:59.720
or something to do with Wisconsin.

0:04:00.560,0:04:06.360
And I lived in Wisconsin quite a bit of my life.

0:04:06.360,0:04:10.080
I think I'm about finished with it.

0:04:10.080,0:04:14.200
I just wrote "Wisconsin sesquicentennial project"

0:04:14.200,0:04:15.431
on these three plates.

0:04:17.720,0:04:19.720
I didn't start trying to be an artist

0:04:19.720,0:04:22.444
until I was a couple of years into college.

0:04:24.680,0:04:26.840
And I've never understood [br]why I decided at that point

0:04:26.840,0:04:28.200
that I could, but I did,

0:04:28.200,0:04:30.360
because I was doing very well at the other stuff.

0:04:32.920,0:04:35.560
Or I recognized that I didn't [br]have the passion about it,

0:04:35.560,0:04:36.840
mathematics and physics,

0:04:36.840,0:04:38.990
that friends of mine had that [br]were doing the same stuff.

0:04:39.600,0:04:40.800
And I saw that in art.

0:04:40.800,0:04:43.078
And for whatever reason I switched.

0:04:45.280,0:04:47.360
I needed a different way to approach

0:04:48.320,0:04:49.734
the idea of being an artist.

0:05:11.288,0:05:25.855
(engine starts)

0:05:25.855,0:05:27.735
This runs an hour.

0:05:29.719,0:05:32.734
And that's how long it took [br]to do what I was doing.

0:05:38.800,0:05:41.671
And I wasn't sure, when I [br]finished it, if anybody would

0:05:43.240,0:05:44.560
take it seriously as a work of art,

0:05:44.560,0:05:49.771
and I don't know how many [br]people do, anyway. (chuckles)

0:05:53.520,0:05:57.080
It turned out to be kind of interesting to watch

0:05:57.080,0:05:58.637
and watch more than once.

0:06:03.120,0:06:05.440
In the studio I don't do a lot of work

0:06:05.440,0:06:09.641
that requires repetitive activity.

0:06:11.160,0:06:14.240
I spend a lot of time looking and thinking

0:06:14.240,0:06:16.120
and then trying to find the most efficient way

0:06:17.360,0:06:18.480
to get what I want,

0:06:18.480,0:06:20.240
whether it's drawing or sculpture

0:06:20.240,0:06:22.320
or casting plaster or whatever.

0:06:22.320,0:06:26.720
But part of the enjoyment I take in it

0:06:26.720,0:06:28.557
is finding the most efficient way to do it.

0:06:32.531,0:06:33.466
(post thuds)

0:06:33.466,0:06:34.707
(onlooker laughs)[br](Bruce mumbles)

0:06:36.841,0:06:37.609
<v Onlooker>Huh?</v>[br]Scared me.

0:06:38.440,0:06:41.960
<v Onlooker>Sorry.</v>

0:06:41.960,0:06:43.760
Good job!

0:06:45.417,0:06:47.400
<v ->And I don't have any [br]specific step to take,

0:06:47.400,0:06:49.623
because I don't start the same way every time.

0:06:51.280,0:06:54.440
There is knowing when it's enough

0:06:54.440,0:06:55.989
and you can leave it alone.

0:07:06.960,0:07:12.799
And a lot of it's accidental, [br]the result of cheap equipment.

0:07:12.799,0:07:15.742
(Bruce laughs)[br]Accidents.

0:07:18.280,0:07:21.494
The accidents kind of keep [br]it real too, and I like that.

0:07:24.240,0:07:26.307
But it's what keeps me in the studio,

0:07:28.120,0:07:29.520
always being surprised.

0:07:32.280,0:07:37.320
So there's some joy in there too. (laughs)

0:07:40.320,0:07:42.675
When it all kind of works, and you say, "Ah."

0:07:44.920,0:07:46.035
Makes it okay.

0:07:59.440,0:08:04.784
(rope whacks)

0:08:04.784,0:08:09.074
(horse hooves clopping)

0:08:14.240,0:08:17.000
When I got involved with the horses,

0:08:17.000,0:08:20.600
and I was in my 40s or [br]something before that happened,

0:08:20.600,0:08:22.532
and so I had to learn a lot

0:08:23.600,0:08:25.320
from people that had been [br]doing it all their lives,

0:08:25.320,0:08:27.478
and so sometimes it's hard to communicate.

0:08:31.520,0:08:32.480
It's been interesting for me

0:08:32.480,0:08:35.960
to work with these cowboys and [br]ranchers and be around them.

0:08:35.960,0:08:39.239
And they're hard jobs that [br]they do, physically hard jobs.

0:08:41.920,0:08:43.880
Good guys, take a lot of pride in their work,

0:08:43.880,0:08:46.840
and they like to do it efficiently and cleanly.

0:08:49.240,0:08:50.280
It's not different from the way

0:08:50.280,0:08:51.480
I like to work in the studio.

0:08:51.480,0:08:53.280
Even though the studio looks like a big mess,

0:08:53.280,0:08:57.534
I like my mind to at least try [br]and be (chuckles) efficient.

0:09:01.000,0:09:05.600
I really would have a hard time being here

0:09:05.600,0:09:09.840
without that part of my life, just being out here

0:09:09.840,0:09:12.523
and having kind of a real good reason to be here.

0:09:16.120,0:09:18.800
It's hard to not let it take up too much time,

0:09:18.800,0:09:19.838
because it sure could.

0:09:21.080,0:09:23.317
But the other part of me that's an artist

0:09:24.320,0:09:26.928
is not gonna be satisfied [br]with the ranching either.

0:09:27.931,0:09:30.400
Some things flow from one to the other,

0:09:30.400,0:09:33.088
and some can't or don't.

0:09:40.440,0:09:41.613
This...

0:09:47.760,0:09:51.180
In the last few years I've been [br]working on several projects,

0:09:51.180,0:09:52.160
or a couple of projects,

0:09:52.160,0:09:54.600
well, several that involve the idea of stairs

0:09:54.600,0:09:56.400
or bleachers and stadiums.

0:09:58.840,0:10:02.120
I was thinking about having a bunch of bleachers

0:10:02.120,0:10:03.960
that went up and down, you could walk up and down,

0:10:04.800,0:10:07.565
and then inverting them and [br]hanging them from the ceiling.

0:10:08.960,0:10:11.962
It's sort of like subverting the function.

0:10:13.640,0:10:15.040
I always thought that the idea

0:10:15.040,0:10:18.520
that you can make something [br]that appears to be functional,

0:10:18.520,0:10:19.560
but when you try and use it,

0:10:19.560,0:10:22.600
you can't quite figure out [br]what its function might be.

0:10:22.600,0:10:24.600
And that's, in the end, what its function is,

0:10:24.600,0:10:26.929
is for you to figure out [br]what to do with it, I guess.

0:10:28.280,0:10:30.000
In fact, they seem to be using it that way,

0:10:31.360,0:10:34.843
eating lunch and just sitting out in the sun.

0:10:41.840,0:10:49.680
(footfalls)

0:10:49.680,0:10:53.274
There is no regular rhythm to going up and down.

0:10:54.080,0:10:57.360
You have to take each step and watch it,

0:10:57.360,0:11:00.176
and so it requires you to [br]pay quite a lot of attention.

0:11:05.320,0:11:07.720
I'm not even sure if you need to walk on it.

0:11:07.720,0:11:10.359
But, of course everybody does.

0:11:12.800,0:11:16.440
It's the intention that changes it from a stairway

0:11:16.440,0:11:21.880
to a stairway as a work of art. (chuckles)

0:11:21.880,0:11:24.294
Because I said so. (chuckles)

0:11:29.373,0:11:30.640
I studied mathematics for a while,

0:11:30.640,0:11:32.360
and one of the things that I always liked about it

0:11:32.360,0:11:35.580
is that there were things you could prove,

0:11:37.040,0:11:38.480
but they were just things you proved,

0:11:38.480,0:11:40.800
they didn't change the [br]structure of mathematics any.

0:11:40.800,0:11:43.760
There were things that people have done and proved

0:11:43.760,0:11:45.840
that changed the structure of mathematics,

0:11:45.840,0:11:47.080
but it had to be really clear,

0:11:47.080,0:11:48.734
and sometimes it was very elegant.

0:11:49.840,0:11:51.160
Having to say it out loud,

0:11:51.160,0:11:55.758
having to explain what you're [br]doing, forces you to be clear.

0:11:57.000,0:11:58.280
You can't kind of just fumble through

0:11:58.280,0:11:59.120
and get something and say,

0:11:59.120,0:12:00.782
"Well, that's what I meant to do all along."

0:12:01.480,0:12:05.456
That is the part that I think about in my work;

0:12:06.480,0:12:09.256
making sure that what I'm doing is really clear.

0:12:10.280,0:12:13.513
And then it's available.

0:12:14.080,0:12:16.080
And those are the kinds of [br]things that you look for.

0:12:16.080,0:12:21.000
You look in art, and this changes the structure

0:12:21.000,0:12:25.000
of how you can think about [br]art, and it's there for you.

0:12:26.120,0:12:29.920
And those are wonderful things

0:12:29.920,0:12:31.841
when you're in their presence.

0:12:32.800,0:12:37.280
So that's what we are looking for.

0:12:37.280,0:12:41.720
Thank you, thank you, thank [br]you, thank you, thank you,

0:12:41.720,0:12:45.760
thank you, thank you, thank [br]you, thank you, thank you,

0:12:45.760,0:12:49.840
thank you, thank you, thank [br]you, thank you, thank you,

0:12:49.840,0:12:52.312
thank you, thank you, thank you!