Where It All Began

          I would write some almost cliché story about how my art is linked to the world around me. How everyone has their own story, but how each story is connected; entwined together through common events.

          I would explain that the single-strand of wire is meant to represent the force that binds us all together. How that one contorted, swirling line shows how we fit together in this world.

          I would probably even mention something about how the spirit of the metal guides my hands in the right direction, revealing the souls of the objects. How when I make the final cut on the end of the wire, I can visualize the object as a whole, without gaps between the wire, often a living, breathing organism.


But that would make me look crazy.

  

Instead, I will tell you the story of how this all began.

          My father was building a house. This was no ordinary house, it was a monster of a house; with heated floors, vacuums built into the walls, solar tubes bringing light into dark corners, and all sorts of other exciting features. But the part about it that grabbed my attention was the wire. Those shiny bits of copper running through the walls.

          It was at this time that copper prices were skyrocketing due to miners striking in South America. Probably not the best time to spark an interest in it, but nonetheless, I did. I started playing with the scraps of wire. The one in particular that brought me into this peculiar art was an ordinary wire, as most are. It was copper, clean of any coverings, mangled on one end, and rather shiny. I didn't think much of the mangled part and planned to cut it off to keep it out of my way, but happened to not have anything handy with which to cut it.

          I made a spiral out of the non-mangled end. An ordinary spiral, just like the wire. It spun outwards, toward the mangled part. Just as I completed my spiral the strangest thing happened. It had never occurred to me to even try something so different. The mangled portion of the wire was bent in exactly the right way to make it work. I held in my hand what appeared to be a small, copper turtle.

                               Turtle_that_started_it_all.jpg

This turtle, although accidental and completely unexpected, became the first wire sculpture I ever created.

 

                                                   -Ben Masters