Bob Potts has had quite a mixed path of life; being in the Navy, working as a carpenter’s apprentice, subcontracting for various artists, toured as with a professional string band (with fiddle in hand), and even building experimental racecars. Now, the 72 year-old has a selection of his private works from the last 20 years on display at the MB&F M.A.D Gallery in Geneva.
Working from an 1850s barn, Potts has created about 20 sculptures over the last 20 years (2009-2011 and 1996-2005). Using gears, cranks, sliders, levers and chain links, he somehow manages to create natural looking rhythmic movement, often inspired by flight in nature.
“My work is the manifestation of ideas that come to me from the natural world. The grace and form of all living things, and the way they interact, leaves me in awe,” he says, leaving us in awe ourselves.
MB and F reveal the method Potts puts into his work:
“Despite the mechanical complexity of his work, the artist does not use computer-aided design software. Instead, Potts puts his carpentry skills to good use by making stick prototypes to help calculate all of the distances and dimensions, working out the geometry of the artwork he plans on creating. The design slowly reveals itself during this process and continually evolves. Most of the time, the final result is very different from what he envisioned in the beginning. To Potts, this is a good thing and gives him great satisfaction.”
The skill required for these profound masterpieces that merge metal and wood so beautifully is something that Potts has acquired from his mixed background, previously working in automotive industries as well as being a carpenter.
