The fifth installment of this series is called "Icosahedron" and was created by Kirk Seese. The sculpture is made of tubular steel, MDO board and allthread rod. It is located outside of W.W. Galore.
"Do you remember the feeling you had when you first discovered what you really wanted to do for the rest of your life?" Seese said. "That excitement! That inexhaustible drive and determination! The future pregnant with possibilities. Well, I am experiencing such a blast right now, as a middle-aged visual artist!"
Seese is from Lutherville, Maryland. For the majority of his artistic career, he has been a local of the Maryland/District of Columbia metro area and a 2D mural artist. Interior and exterior murals and faux finishing were his bread and butter, although Seese also spent two years as a scenic artist/set and prop painter for film and television. This was the case until four years ago when he was hired as Lead Designer for a New Zealand based, active family entertainment company called ClimbZone, which specializes in building themed climbing walls for their franchisees.
Since then, Seese has designed hundreds of themed climbing walls, his 2D designs becoming 3D reality, as they build and open new gyms in America. The fabrication technique they developed while Seese was employed there has opened his eyes to the possibilities of creating art in 3D. Considering Seese's roots are in public art, (first job out of art school was as Director of Urban Arts Projects for a non-profit in Baltimore City through the Americorps VISTA program), he couldn’t help marry the two together.
Seese began applying to national Call to Artists at the end of 2018. It started primarily with mural requests, but he quickly saw an abundance of sculpture requests as well. Since then, Seese's debut sculpture design, "Pluma Sculptura," aka "The Feather," was selected for outdoor sculpture exhibitions in 20 states so far.
He has won larger permanent sculpture commissions in Maryland, Colorado, New Hapshire and Virginia, including a permanent piece for the Underwater Museum of Art in Walton County, Florida, the country’s first underwater sculpture garden, scuba-tourism attraction, and a prominent public sculpture for the Sunset Neighborhood Park Renovation in Renton, Washington with a budget of $250,000.
Seese is currently experiencing a personal creative renaissance. In the middle of all this he is scrambling to learn CAD programs like 3D Rhino to better illustrate his sculptural concepts and intentions. Seese is looking for opportunities to experiment with new materials like concrete, stone, steel and bronze, adding kinetic possibilities, as well as digital elements such as augmented reality, projection mapping and LED technology, and taking Welding Certification classes this winter.
Although no longer employed at ClimbZone, instead focusing on public murals and sculpture full time, Seese has developed business relationships with several key fabrication shops and engineering firms in Maryland.
This allows Seese access to whatever services he needs to produce a winning piece, until he builds a shop of his own.
