Cobb >> In Greek mythology, the phoenix is said to be a bird that dies in flames, only to be reborn from its own ashes. Symbolizing renewal, it might be a fitting subject for a sculpture created from materials found in the Valley Fire, representing the resilience of Lake County communities.
Adam Moore, a Cobb artist who lost his home in the fire, is doing just that. After firefighters smothered the flames and Moore was able to get back into the area, his eyes landed on melted aluminum that had drained off cars. To him it looked as if the solid streams were still liquid. Ever in the artist’s mindset, his first thought wasn’t one of horror, but creation. He had to make a piece of artwork from the material.
“I just wanted to do something to give back to the community,” Moore said.
Initially he thought he would make coffee tables, but then staring at the ashes coating the ground, something else entered his mind. He could make a sculpture for his community which had lost so much. A phoenix was one of his first ideas, but he wanted input. He floated the concept around Cobb, and it was met with enthusiasm.
He began gathering the aluminum from the 20 or so cars on his own lot. He used social media to collect more and his plans have also spread through word of mouth. He receives calls once a week from people with a pile of the material.
Although Moore is embarking on an art project, he’s also providing a cleanup service of sorts. If he heads out to someone’s home to collect aluminum from their property, he plans to take it all, even the pieces he can’t immediately use. He’ll save the scraps and melt them down for another art project.
Each piece of melted aluminum is unique, and Moore plans to highlight their various textures, shapes and colors in his sculpture. How a piece looks all depends on the way in which it melted. Some are short and thick, if the liquid metal pooled on a flat surface. Others, if it traveled downhill, are long and thin and Moore has one piece that measures six feet in length. Plus there are some shapes even more unique. In one instance, metal melted into gaps in the ground to create the cast of a hole. Then there’s the physical ground it melted on: cement, gravel, dirt. Every small variance affects the look.
“Every single little piece is like a snowflake,” Moore said. “Every little piece is different depending on all the different variables.”
It’s part of what will make the sculpture so special. “You can walk up to it and get lost in every piece of aluminum,” he added.
The size of the sculpture will depend on how much melted aluminum Moore gets his hands on. If he gathers enough, he wants to make three sculptures, one each for Cobb, Middletown and Hidden Valley. But as things stand, he’ll place his phoenix sculpture in Cobb, since the materials he’s collected are from the area.
He has time to grow his collection, though. He’s in the middle of another project, and he wont be able to start on the phoenix until that one is complete. He expects to get to work at the beginning of the new year.
He’s going into the project with only a few ideas in mind. First, he’ll create a steel skeleton. Then, he’ll attach a layer of aluminum using bolts. From there, he’ll weld the pieces of aluminum together, to create the look of feathers.
But Moore isn’t a guy with a plan. He’s just not the type. “You put something together and then you look at it and you get an idea and then you go from there,” he said. “I try not to get too much of a plan in the beginning because it restricts the artistic flow of the project.”
Although he picked up welding in high school, Moore doesn’t have much experience with aluminum. But he’s not worried. “It’s not going to be a walk in the park, but that’s a big part of the fun, is the challenge,” he said. “It’s like building a puzzle that hasn’t been designed yet.”
Moore’s work tends to be both functional and modern. He’s attended Burning Man for years and he’s made different contraptions for the event, including a remote control hammock, LED coffee tables and a go-kart that looked as if it were a large crystal cluster.
This non-traditional approach to artwork is perhaps why he came back to a home destroyed by the Valley Fire and he saw not destruction, but art.
While Moore intends for the phoenix to be an outdoor sculpture, he doesn’t have any plans as to where in Cobb he’ll display it. Once he gets to that point, he’ll ask for public input and then talk with the county to hammer out the finer details.
The sculpture is a way to keep materials as close to home as possible. As opposed to sending the aluminum off to a recycling plant where it will be melted down into beer and soda cans, “it can be something that stays where it was,” Moore said.
And as he creates beauty from destruction, he also strives to give the community hope. “The main message is you can take something bad and make something good,” he said. “There’s always a bright side.”
If anyone has melted aluminum for Moore, they can contact him at 415-298-2573.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
