I have a great fabricator locally, his name is Hans, and his company is Primitive Precision Metalcraft.  We’ve worked together for years. He’s worked on Dream Elevator, he built the original Filling the Void, he built the second Filling the Void, he did Prairie Roots, he’s built smaller frames for me… what else has he done?  He’s made pieces of different projects. He’s currently working on Collection Point, all the steel, which is the biggest project I think he’s ever had. We have lots more planned.

So basically he’s a big welding shop.  He fabricates all kinds of metals–steel, aluminum.  He’s a blacksmith too, so he does very artistic things sometimes when he’s forging.  He’s also a fabricator, so he does very precise kind of architectural things, and that’s kind of more what I tend to give him.  That’s my stuff, is precision … it’s not like, there’s not much interpretation. Just make it so it fits as perfectly as you can.

I like working with him because first of all, he’s a perfectionist, and he’s very meticulous–he catches my mistakes, which is really important.  And he has integrity too. He takes the job on and it’s like it’s his project. He’s not just trying to do it, or just do it well so he can get paid and it’s done, but he takes ownership of it.  And I need that, because things go wrong and I need somebody to help me solve the problem. He also can tell me better ways to do things. I’m sitting in my little design world and everything lines up, and stuff happens all the time that I never imagined.  

Hans’ first space was across the street from the Rocket [Return Journey].  I met Hans–I needed some fabrication done or something, and he was right across the street in what used to be a bottling company.  They’ve turned it into a school, but there were a lot of different studios in there, and it was kind of a chaotic building. And Hans told me that the rocket had been nicknamed the Bottle Rocket, because it looks like it’s on a stick and there’s the bottling company right across the street. I thought that was kind of interesting.

But we formed this relationship when Hans was just starting out and he’s been going gangbusters ever since then.  It’s unbelievable.

collection point, Dream Elevator, filling the void, prairie roots, Return Journey