Red Devil, 31 x 31 inches, acrylic on canvas.
Flowers, 30 x 20 inches, painted paper and wire.
PERHAPS the most unique way that the natural
world finds its way into Webb’s work is in her
wire mobiles. Inspired by the wire sculpture work
of Alexander Calder, pieces like “Flowers” and
“Rectangles and Circles” depict nature in abstracted
but dynamic form.
“Most people aren’t familiar with mobiles and they aren’t
familiar with the idea of having one in their home in order to
watch air currents,” she says. But I’ve found that, despite this,
people really respond to mobiles and their heads are up the
whole time they are around them.”
Calder moved in the French avant-garde circles of the 1940s
and 1950s, and it was his friend Marcel Duchamp who first used
the term “mobile” — meaning both “motion” and “motive” in
French — to describe Calder’s kinetic sculptures. At first, Calder
made figurative mobiles, creating wire versions of his own
drawings and then suspending them. But as his interest in the
medium grew, the pieces became more abstract and nature-focused,
resulting in iconic works like “Arc of Petals” (1941). Early
versions of these included bits of scavenged glass and pottery,
where later ones featured flat, metal shapes, often painted in
primary colors.
Webb’s kinetic sculptures are made of wire and paper, rather than
metal, but like Calder’s are inspired by the idea that art and nature
can actually interact in these pieces. Calder makes sense as one of
many influences on Webb who, like the avant-garde sculptor, cannot
be confined to a single movement or style of art. Also like Calder,
who received a degree in mechanical engineering before attend-ing
art school, Webb describes herself as “part engineer.”
“I’ve always loved seeing the movement,” she says. The idea of
using air to make something dance and sing visually makes me
excited and happy — it’s an engineering thing. I think I am part
engineer.”
The engineering part of Webb’s brain plays a prominent role
in her work with fiber optics as well. Webb showed a piece incor-porating
fiber optics in the Cameron Art Museum’s lantern show
last year and intends to push the role of fiber optics further in her
submission this year. The show restricts all participants to the use
of a single LED bulb, and Webb says that this limitation helped
inspire her to think innovatively.
As she states, “I’m curious, so I try different things. If they don’t
work I either don’t talk about them or I keep trying to get them
to work.” Merging both her artistic and engineering impulses,
this piece is sure to be a captivating stand-out.
Webb remarked often as we spoke about how happy art and
the process of its creation makes her, a truth that is abundantly
clear in all of the diverse pieces that she creates. Reflecting her
earnest and scientific curiosity about the world and a genuine joy
in the beauty around her, Webb’s work is exhilarating to see and
fun to contemplate.
september 2019 52
WBM