Anthony Howe is an accomplished artist who works with steel to create 3D kinetic sculptures that are visually striking and hypnotically beautiful. For over 30 years he has been making them at his Orcas Island, Washington workshop by hand and with the aid of a computer. His wife helps him run the business and sell the artwork, which depending on size and materials can range in price anywhere from $40,000 – $400,000.
Howe’s inspiration was born out of a desire to find beauty and elegance in things that are the opposite of that, awkward and ugly. He explains that it’s the awkwardness of objects, like things that bang against each other or which seem physically impossible, are what sparks his ideas and draws him in.
He strives to both streamline and make things work more beautifully, and his eventual art is masterfully hammered and molded into undulating pieces that move and flow in ways that seem to defy logic. The sculptures he creates resemble optical illusions as they twist and turn in on themselves then fold back out into space, and they’re mesmerizing to watch.
The artistic journey Howe’s been on began years ago soon after he moved to New York to become a painter. As luck would have it he instead ended up working as a superintendent at a warehouse in Manhattan and noticed all the surrounding steel.
He decided to make sculptures out of the metal and explains that he was “bored with everything being static in my visual world, I wanted to see stuff move.” With that concept in mind he set to work creating visually spectacular sculptures that move easily in a breeze, as if they are dancing in the wind.
While the sculptures may look as if they were completely hand-made they are not truly 100% done by hand and Howe does use a computer to help design them. He conceptualizes his basic idea on a computer program first which allows him to see how a certain design will later move in a 3D-type of visual space.
When it comes time to construct a sculpture Howe begins by forming a foundation for the piece and starts it off with a specific individual design. Then he multiplies that design element over and over again, adding it into random or repeating patterns, that eventually come together and make up the completed sculpture. Some of his works appear to always be in motion, even when they are not, because Anthony adds mirrors that reflect and refract light at all times.
Howe clearly loves his craft and excels at making visual works of art. Check out the video to see them in action and to learn more about the artist and his life’s work. Through it all his desire to find elegance in the awkward can be seen as he continues to be inspired by movement, angles, and nature.
Please Share This With Family and Friends
