Main fundraiser photo

Mattress Rolling Device

I aim to engage more of my local community in my art practice. I am very creative, inventive and tenacious and work every angle in order to bring my ideas into reality. Thank you for taking the time to consider donating money!

            I discovered mattress spring units and began using them as my base material after seeing one on CraigsList, Free Stuff. It grabbed my attention immediately as it contained the illusions of space I was manufacturing in my work.

             A mattress spring unit is representative of great engineering.
Steel wire is bent and twisted into coils and helical wire then assembled together to support a human body. You can only temporarily deform areas of a mattress. The parts are designed to resist being deformed yielding to pressure only until the pressure is released. And that is where my fascination transformed into my current challenge:
            In my current art practice there is a physically demanding process in which I take mattress spring units and roll them into 8" to 9" diameter logs. I can then build with these 'logs' similar to the once popular toy, Lincoln Logs.  I'm in pretty good shape, but can only make two of these per day as rolling mattress spring units is exhausting.

            What an incredible cross-disciplinary opportunity this is to combine visual arts with engineering. Art and Science share many of the same practices - they both require an empirical thought process (especially in sculpture) and both engage the imagination. 

            I have an initial design for a portable, manually operated device that will greatly reduce the amount of physical effort. I initially sought the advice from engineering firms in the Phoenix area, but found the University of Arizona (UofA) to be the best fit in that it would engage engineering students in one of their first real world applications. It's called Design Day. UofA offers this opportunity to companies and individuals. My application has been accepted.

The next step is begin raising the necessary funds:
$2500 goes to UofA Engineering due by Aug. 31,  2018
an estimated additional $5,500 for supplies to build a working prototype throughout the 2018 fall semester.

            No other current sculptor is working with mattress spring units. Your support means that I'll be able to construct larger sculptures and move into the public sphere creating public art. Your support also contributes to the education of engineering students. I plan to promote this combination of a local university and it's community's artists working together! Sounds like a great news story and you can be a part of it!

- John David Yanke – www.jdavidart.com

Organizer

J David Art
Organizer
Phoenix, AZ

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