WEBVTT 00:00:47.240 --> 00:00:49.720 <v ->I don't generally think  about large audiences. 00:00:49.720 --> 00:00:52.280 I think about, who would I like to show this to? 00:00:52.280 --> 00:00:53.640 Who would I, that came over to visit, 00:00:53.640 --> 00:00:56.825 would I say, "Let me show you this"? 00:00:59.920 --> 00:01:00.560 (sculpture grinds) 00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:02.360 If it meets that, 00:01:02.360 --> 00:01:04.640 then I figure a lot of people can look at it. 00:01:04.640 --> 00:01:06.040 Okay, okay, okay, okay. 00:01:06.040 --> 00:01:07.480 Okay, okay, okay, okay. 00:01:07.480 --> 00:01:09.723 Okay, okay, okay. 00:01:09.723 --> 00:01:10.480 All right, okay, okay, okay. 00:01:10.480 --> 00:01:12.360 Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. 00:01:12.360 --> 00:01:13.720 Okay, okay, okay. 00:01:13.720 --> 00:01:15.480 All right, okay, okay, okay, 00:01:15.480 --> 00:01:18.440 okay, okay, okay, okay. 00:01:18.440 --> 00:01:20.160 Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. 00:01:20.160 --> 00:01:21.418 Okay, okay, okay, okay. (humming) 00:01:23.162 --> 00:01:32.028 (humming and trilling) (camcorder beeps) 00:02:09.600 --> 00:02:13.311 Last winter we had a lot of mice in the studio. 00:02:14.902 --> 00:02:16.622 And I got rid of most of them. 00:02:17.320 --> 00:02:19.520 Then I was sitting around here, 00:02:19.520 --> 00:02:21.216 not having a very good project. 00:02:22.480 --> 00:02:26.880 So I set up this infrared camera at night 00:02:26.880 --> 00:02:31.190 in different places, and see what happens. 00:02:32.280 --> 00:02:41.266 And I'm getting, oh, usually  three or four different events, 00:02:41.266 --> 00:02:41.770 (Bruce chuckles) 00:02:43.055 --> 00:02:44.623 things happening with the mice, 00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:48.480 a mouse or two coming through, and the cat. 00:02:48.480 --> 00:02:50.849 And so far they've never  happened at the same time. 00:02:52.200 --> 00:02:53.640 And then every morning when I come in here 00:02:53.640 --> 00:02:57.920 and replay what's been captured, 00:02:57.920 --> 00:03:00.000 it's like a little meditation, 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:02.347 because you can't really watch  any one part of the screen 00:03:03.480 --> 00:03:05.520 or you'll miss something  that happens in another part, 00:03:05.520 --> 00:03:07.602 because it happens pretty  fast and it's real short. 00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:13.920 So you have to kind of not watch anything 00:03:13.920 --> 00:03:16.067 so that you can be aware of everything. 00:03:31.783 --> 00:03:33.873 (footsteps) 00:03:37.600 --> 00:03:38.829 This is... 00:03:42.200 --> 00:03:44.760 oh, a project I said I'd get involved in 00:03:44.760 --> 00:03:47.480 probably almost a year and a half or two years ago 00:03:47.480 --> 00:03:50.000 for the Wisconsin sesquicentennial. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:52.720 And it's a portfolio of prints 00:03:52.720 --> 00:03:54.800 by artists either from Wisconsin 00:03:54.800 --> 00:03:57.760 or we've had some lived in Wisconsin 00:03:57.760 --> 00:03:59.720 or something to do with Wisconsin. 00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:06.360 And I lived in Wisconsin quite a bit of my life. 00:04:06.360 --> 00:04:10.080 I think I'm about finished with it. 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:14.200 I just wrote "Wisconsin sesquicentennial project" 00:04:14.200 --> 00:04:15.431 on these three plates. 00:04:17.720 --> 00:04:19.720 I didn't start trying to be an artist 00:04:19.720 --> 00:04:22.444 until I was a couple of years into college. 00:04:24.680 --> 00:04:26.840 And I've never understood  why I decided at that point 00:04:26.840 --> 00:04:28.200 that I could, but I did, 00:04:28.200 --> 00:04:30.360 because I was doing very well at the other stuff. 00:04:32.920 --> 00:04:35.560 Or I recognized that I didn't  have the passion about it, 00:04:35.560 --> 00:04:36.840 mathematics and physics, 00:04:36.840 --> 00:04:38.990 that friends of mine had that  were doing the same stuff. 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:40.800 And I saw that in art. 00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:43.078 And for whatever reason I switched. 00:04:45.280 --> 00:04:47.360 I needed a different way to approach 00:04:48.320 --> 00:04:49.734 the idea of being an artist. 00:05:11.288 --> 00:05:25.855 (engine starts) 00:05:25.855 --> 00:05:27.735 This runs an hour. 00:05:29.719 --> 00:05:32.734 And that's how long it took  to do what I was doing. 00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:41.671 And I wasn't sure, when I  finished it, if anybody would 00:05:43.240 --> 00:05:44.560 take it seriously as a work of art, 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:49.771 and I don't know how many  people do, anyway. (chuckles) 00:05:53.520 --> 00:05:57.080 It turned out to be kind of interesting to watch 00:05:57.080 --> 00:05:58.637 and watch more than once. 00:06:03.120 --> 00:06:05.440 In the studio I don't do a lot of work 00:06:05.440 --> 00:06:09.641 that requires repetitive activity. 00:06:11.160 --> 00:06:14.240 I spend a lot of time looking and thinking 00:06:14.240 --> 00:06:16.120 and then trying to find the most efficient way 00:06:17.360 --> 00:06:18.480 to get what I want, 00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:20.240 whether it's drawing or sculpture 00:06:20.240 --> 00:06:22.320 or casting plaster or whatever. 00:06:22.320 --> 00:06:26.720 But part of the enjoyment I take in it 00:06:26.720 --> 00:06:28.557 is finding the most efficient way to do it. 00:06:32.531 --> 00:06:33.466 (post thuds) 00:06:33.466 --> 00:06:34.707 (onlooker laughs) (Bruce mumbles) 00:06:36.841 --> 00:06:37.609 <v Onlooker>Huh?</v> Scared me. 00:06:38.440 --> 00:06:41.960 <v Onlooker>Sorry.</v> 00:06:41.960 --> 00:06:43.760 Good job! 00:06:45.417 --> 00:06:47.400 <v ->And I don't have any  specific step to take, 00:06:47.400 --> 00:06:49.623 because I don't start the same way every time. 00:06:51.280 --> 00:06:54.440 There is knowing when it's enough 00:06:54.440 --> 00:06:55.989 and you can leave it alone. 00:07:06.960 --> 00:07:12.799 And a lot of it's accidental,  the result of cheap equipment. 00:07:12.799 --> 00:07:15.742 (Bruce laughs) Accidents. 00:07:18.280 --> 00:07:21.494 The accidents kind of keep  it real too, and I like that. 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:26.307 But it's what keeps me in the studio, 00:07:28.120 --> 00:07:29.520 always being surprised. 00:07:32.280 --> 00:07:37.320 So there's some joy in there too. (laughs) 00:07:40.320 --> 00:07:42.675 When it all kind of works, and you say, "Ah." 00:07:44.920 --> 00:07:46.035 Makes it okay. 00:07:59.440 --> 00:08:04.784 (rope whacks) 00:08:04.784 --> 00:08:09.074 (horse hooves clopping) 00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:17.000 When I got involved with the horses, 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:20.600 and I was in my 40s or  something before that happened, 00:08:20.600 --> 00:08:22.532 and so I had to learn a lot 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:25.320 from people that had been  doing it all their lives, 00:08:25.320 --> 00:08:27.478 and so sometimes it's hard to communicate. 00:08:31.520 --> 00:08:32.480 It's been interesting for me 00:08:32.480 --> 00:08:35.960 to work with these cowboys and  ranchers and be around them. 00:08:35.960 --> 00:08:39.239 And they're hard jobs that  they do, physically hard jobs. 00:08:41.920 --> 00:08:43.880 Good guys, take a lot of pride in their work, 00:08:43.880 --> 00:08:46.840 and they like to do it efficiently and cleanly. 00:08:49.240 --> 00:08:50.280 It's not different from the way 00:08:50.280 --> 00:08:51.480 I like to work in the studio. 00:08:51.480 --> 00:08:53.280 Even though the studio looks like a big mess, 00:08:53.280 --> 00:08:57.534 I like my mind to at least try  and be (chuckles) efficient. 00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:05.600 I really would have a hard time being here 00:09:05.600 --> 00:09:09.840 without that part of my life, just being out here 00:09:09.840 --> 00:09:12.523 and having kind of a real good reason to be here. 00:09:16.120 --> 00:09:18.800 It's hard to not let it take up too much time, 00:09:18.800 --> 00:09:19.838 because it sure could. 00:09:21.080 --> 00:09:23.317 But the other part of me that's an artist 00:09:24.320 --> 00:09:26.928 is not gonna be satisfied  with the ranching either. 00:09:27.931 --> 00:09:30.400 Some things flow from one to the other, 00:09:30.400 --> 00:09:33.088 and some can't or don't. 00:09:40.440 --> 00:09:41.613 This... 00:09:47.760 --> 00:09:51.180 In the last few years I've been  working on several projects, 00:09:51.180 --> 00:09:52.160 or a couple of projects, 00:09:52.160 --> 00:09:54.600 well, several that involve the idea of stairs 00:09:54.600 --> 00:09:56.400 or bleachers and stadiums. 00:09:58.840 --> 00:10:02.120 I was thinking about having a bunch of bleachers 00:10:02.120 --> 00:10:03.960 that went up and down, you could walk up and down, 00:10:04.800 --> 00:10:07.565 and then inverting them and  hanging them from the ceiling. 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:11.962 It's sort of like subverting the function. 00:10:13.640 --> 00:10:15.040 I always thought that the idea 00:10:15.040 --> 00:10:18.520 that you can make something  that appears to be functional, 00:10:18.520 --> 00:10:19.560 but when you try and use it, 00:10:19.560 --> 00:10:22.600 you can't quite figure out  what its function might be. 00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:24.600 And that's, in the end, what its function is, 00:10:24.600 --> 00:10:26.929 is for you to figure out  what to do with it, I guess. 00:10:28.280 --> 00:10:30.000 In fact, they seem to be using it that way, 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:34.843 eating lunch and just sitting out in the sun. 00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:49.680 (footfalls) 00:10:49.680 --> 00:10:53.274 There is no regular rhythm to going up and down. 00:10:54.080 --> 00:10:57.360 You have to take each step and watch it, 00:10:57.360 --> 00:11:00.176 and so it requires you to  pay quite a lot of attention. 00:11:05.320 --> 00:11:07.720 I'm not even sure if you need to walk on it. 00:11:07.720 --> 00:11:10.359 But, of course everybody does. 00:11:12.800 --> 00:11:16.440 It's the intention that changes it from a stairway 00:11:16.440 --> 00:11:21.880 to a stairway as a work of art. (chuckles) 00:11:21.880 --> 00:11:24.294 Because I said so. (chuckles) 00:11:29.373 --> 00:11:30.640 I studied mathematics for a while, 00:11:30.640 --> 00:11:32.360 and one of the things that I always liked about it 00:11:32.360 --> 00:11:35.580 is that there were things you could prove, 00:11:37.040 --> 00:11:38.480 but they were just things you proved, 00:11:38.480 --> 00:11:40.800 they didn't change the  structure of mathematics any. 00:11:40.800 --> 00:11:43.760 There were things that people have done and proved 00:11:43.760 --> 00:11:45.840 that changed the structure of mathematics, 00:11:45.840 --> 00:11:47.080 but it had to be really clear, 00:11:47.080 --> 00:11:48.734 and sometimes it was very elegant. 00:11:49.840 --> 00:11:51.160 Having to say it out loud, 00:11:51.160 --> 00:11:55.758 having to explain what you're  doing, forces you to be clear. 00:11:57.000 --> 00:11:58.280 You can't kind of just fumble through 00:11:58.280 --> 00:11:59.120 and get something and say, 00:11:59.120 --> 00:12:00.782 "Well, that's what I meant to do all along." 00:12:01.480 --> 00:12:05.456 That is the part that I think about in my work; 00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:09.256 making sure that what I'm doing is really clear. 00:12:10.280 --> 00:12:13.513 And then it's available. 00:12:14.080 --> 00:12:16.080 And those are the kinds of  things that you look for. 00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:21.000 You look in art, and this changes the structure 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:25.000 of how you can think about  art, and it's there for you. 00:12:26.120 --> 00:12:29.920 And those are wonderful things 00:12:29.920 --> 00:12:31.841 when you're in their presence. 00:12:32.800 --> 00:12:37.280 So that's what we are looking for. 00:12:37.280 --> 00:12:41.720 Thank you, thank you, thank  you, thank you, thank you, 00:12:41.720 --> 00:12:45.760 thank you, thank you, thank  you, thank you, thank you, 00:12:45.760 --> 00:12:49.840 thank you, thank you, thank  you, thank you, thank you, 00:12:49.840 --> 00:12:52.312 thank you, thank you, thank you!