* FantasTic-Tocks

Above is a kinetic sculpture I created using the mechanics of an old clock I found in a thrift store. I call it a "Mystic-toc". These four images (above) are of the same sculpture as it changes over a time period of one minute.

I continue to make art that reflects my fascination with urban recycling and fuses it to the cosmic concept of reinvention; the eternal reinvention of everything; the reminder that nothing is new and everything will eventually become something else.

With this said, these kinetic sculptures above encourage the mind to let go of time and move into the realm of constant-change. This particular piece focuses on a buddha going around and around... it's really interesting to watch the progression from tension to relief as he makes his journey from upright to upside down, from stability to instability, over and over again. It is reassuring. Whenever I need a reminder of this basic law of the universe I turn to my recycled clocks for guidance.

Below are a few samples of my other tick-tocks, which I call, "romantic-tocks", "poetic-tocks", and "erotic-tocks", or "fantastic-tock" (depending on the imagery). Although you can't see them here in these 2-d images below - the center image of each piece moves endlessly around and around.

It takes a certain type of awareness to recognize the ongoing potential in an object and then transform into something else. This will become an essential skill as our planet gets more and more bogged down with our garbage. I would like to get more involved in recycling - or "replaying" as I prefer to call it - on a larger level. There is so much stuff already out there just aching to be re-invented.

This is why I absolutley love thrift stores (and I mean real thrift stores - not 'consignment' shops). Thrift stores are the seashores of our consumerist ocean - the place where anything can wash up. Time or trend has no rule - numerous decades and deisgns exist simultaneously in a good thrift store - waiting to be introduced to each other and re-played with as if time were non-linear. I like that.

*Barbara B Jewelry

From the early 1980's until 2000, I had my own thriving business as “Barbara B” - creating jewelry and interesting objects, which were available in numerous galleries and boutiques from Vancouver to Montreal, Seattle to Madison Avenue. My one-of-a-kind creations which I created by hand, celebrated renaissance-thinking and juxtaposed-realities upcycled from a variety of materials ranging from Boeing airplane parts and cake decorations, to old photographs and magazine words and images. 

I was also so lucky to be celebrated as an artist in great publications like The Globe and Mail, given full page spreads in The Province, and featured regularly in The Georgia Straight, Western Living, and a range of other great local and national magazines.

“It's easy to attack and destroy an act of creation. It's a lot more difficult to perform one.”  ~ Chuck Palahniuk.  

It looks like I’ve been honoring ancient images and words all of my life (wish everyone could and would). Respecting the past never gets old. xox
  
Enjoy!