Upper Lake >> For the last eight years Diego Harris, an artist out of Upper Lake, has experimented with welding, pushing further each time. His pieces continued to grow, so much so that he’s reached the point where he can’t go any larger with his metal, steel and copper sculptures.
“I’ve got a lot of ideas, but I sort of do the ones that seem to be most practical and doable,” Harris said. “The thing is, as big as the ones I have now, I have ideas for bigger ones. I’ve just about hit the peak where I can still carry things up a ladder. Any taller, heavier, they’re going to have to be hoisted up.”
Even though he tries to look at the practicalities of his work, Harris sometimes can’t help stretching himself, possibly to his limit. “Every time I do [a sculpture] they always seem to be more involved and I think, ‘Is this going to be the one where I overdo it?’” he said.
Two weeks ago, Harris finished the Olema Tree, a large sculpture installation at the Olema Cottages next to Point Reyes National Seashore Park. The Olema Cottages tracked Harris down after spotting his work at a show in Lake County, hoping they could get their hands on one of his pieces. “I had a sculpture at the EcoArts show in Middletown last year and they were thinking about purchasing it, but the problem was there was just no way it would sit on their property where they wanted it,” he explained. “I told them, ‘If you’re willing to wait a few months … I’ll build you something else that will fit your property better.’”
Harris was given complete creative control for the piece. “They just said, ‘You know, what you wanna do, just do it,’” he said. “And that’s what I did.”
He recalled the day the people from Olema Cottages stopped by his workshop to see the tree. “When they finally came it was early March and they walked around the corner in my backyard basically, not expecting all that much … When they came around the corner they just couldn’t believe it. It was like the scene when Oprah gives people a new house,” he recalled, laughing. “I was like, ‘Oh good, you liked it, I’m glad. I didn’t have a plan B if you didn’t like it.”
Harris devoted a significant chunk of time to creating the Olema Tree. He started in late December, right around Christmas time. Since then he has been sweating over it non-stop, the last few weeks working deep into the morning hours.
Though the extensive amount of time he devoted to the tree was tough, Harris said that’s how he works best. “It’s not the sort of thing I can do all the time, but … working under pressure is always the best creativity I find,” he said. “You just make more spontaneous decisions, it just comes out a little bit easier.”
The technicalities involved in constructing the sculpture were also heavily involved. “Inside of it is coated with asphalt to prevent it from rusting from the inside, which was a real pain to do,” Harris said. “It’s all bolted together. It comes apart in eight pieces and I’d have to count the bolts but I think it’s around 70 bolts … They have rivets that I had to make by hand from copper wiring. I think I have 116 rivets on that thing.”
Harris laughed that his local welding store was probably really curious about what he was up to. “I was making trips to the welding supply place every week or two,” he said.
Harris learned to weld by enrolling in night classes offered by Mendocino College through Kelseyville High School. He said most of his classmates were learning the skill for career reasons. “I was probably the only one in there doing it to be an artist,” he said. “I was probably the most serious one there that was doing it just for myself.”
He began exploring the art form for both personal and practical reasons. “For one thing it just sounded kind of cool. I mean who wouldn’t want to learn to weld?” he said. “My parents encouraged me because they told me, ‘If you can be an artist that can work with metal, you’ll be a lot more successful than an artist who makes baskets.’”
But just because he learned to weld didn’t mean he abandoned all other mediums. “I’ve been making jewelry for 22 or something years now, since I was probably about four years old, and gourds,” Harris said. “I do really enjoy working with natural material. It’s nice to get a little bit of natural material once in a while. At some point I’d like to combine them more, but it’s tough because wood rots.”
Since it’s difficult for Harris to use both natural and man-made materials together, he strives to give many of his pieces an earth-like quality. “Just sort of that rusted sort of look that I like,” he said. “I like to have things that are natural. I like to bring a part of that into it, with architectural aspects here and there. The welds [give] sort of a neat texture and a pattern. I don’t get too crazy in grinding off my welds. If it’s a bad weld I’ll grind it off … That blending of nature and industry is sort of what I go for.”
For the Olema Tree, he feels the numerous bolts assist with the feel. “It’s sort of an architectural detail that breaks up the organics of the shape,” Harris explained. “It’s still organic, but it helps to have an industrial accent here and there.”
Harris is planning more sculptures in the vein of the Olema Tree. “When you find a scene that kind of works it’s kind of nice to explore it a little more,” he said.
Like any career, Harris’ art can be more work than enjoyment at times, but the payoff is well worth any difficulties he runs up against. “If it’s a sculpture that I have to build, it’s not really fun, it’s working,” he said. “The fun part is at the end when you see it coming together, you’re realizing something and your vision is coming through.”
With the sculpture for the Olema Cottages complete, Harris continues to work on pieces for other venues. On May 16 the Colverdale Sculpture Walk hosts an opening reception, where Harris will display a piece. And in June, he shows at EcoArts again.
Just across from the Blue Wing Saloon in Upper Lake at 9495 Main Street, people can find Harris’ show space, Diego’s Gallery. Not only are his sculptures on display but he also shows his other work, as well as his parent’s artwork. “I have paintings in there. I have also my parent’s work,” Harris said. “My father does paintings, my mother does baskets and her and I we both do jewelery and I also do photography and gourds.”
To visit Diego’s Gallery, contact Harris at 707-350-4209.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
