Buster Simpson

Last updated
Buster Simpson
Born
Lewis Cole Simpson

1942
Nationality American
Education University of Michigan
Known for Sculpture, Environmental art

Lewis Cole "Buster" Simpson (born in 1942 in Saginaw, Michigan) is an American sculptor and environmental artist based in Seattle, Washington.

Contents

Career

Part of Situations, a set of 31 skewed stone chairs installed by Simpson at Downtown Crossing station in the 1980s Situations chairs at Downtown Crossing station, February 2013.JPG
Part of Situations, a set of 31 skewed stone chairs installed by Simpson at Downtown Crossing station in the 1980s

Lewis Cole Simpson was born in Saginaw, Michigan and raised in a nearby farming community. He became interested in art while attending junior college in Flint and attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, graduating in 1969 with a master in fine arts. After graduating, Simpson joined other artists at the Woodstock Festival in New York state, helping build play areas for festivalgoers. [1] [2]

Simpson caught the attention of glass artist Dale Chihuly in 1971 while giving a talk at the Rhode Island School of Design and invited him to join the new Pilchuck Glass School near Stanwood, Washington. Two years later, Simpson moved to Seattle and began his work in "recycled art" at a studio in Pioneer Square. [3] During the 1970s, Simpson created several pieces of public art along Post Alley near Pike Place Market, utilizing materials from dumpsters and thrift shops for Shared Clothesline and discarded bottles as scrap glass for 90 Pine Show and Counterparts. He also developed an alter ego, named "Woodman", used during street performances while scavenging for materials. [4] [5]

During the 1980s, Simpson engaged in "agitprop" work, including dropping soft limestone blocks in the headwaters of the Hudson River that was dubbed by the media as "River Rolaids". [6] Simpson was later commissioned by institutions and governments across the United States and Canada to create public art to display in cities. Simpson was given his first career retrospective in 2013 at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, called Buster Simpson: Surveyor. [7]

In 2019, Buster Simpson was included in two group exhibitions exploring the material glass as vehicle for sculpture, in painting and as tool of conceptual inspiration - An Alternative History: The Other Glass, in New York City and As In Also: An Alternative Too, in Seattle - each organized by artist, published author and independent curator John Drury.

Works

Art in Public Places [8]
TITLELOCATIONCITYSTATE/COUNTRYYEARNOTESIMAGE
DiviningLatta Plantation Nature Preserve

Visitor's Center

HuntersvilleNorth Carolina2018
Wickiup Overlook & EncampmentPearsall ParkSan AntonioTexas2016
Discombobulated DiscourseDuwamish RevealedSeattleWashington2015
Orange Lining & Impressed ConcreteTriMet Orange LinePortlandOregon2015Collaboration with Peg Butler
CradleSouth Waterfront ParkPortlandOregon2015
Offering CycleAnchorageAlaska2014
Anthropocene BeachElliott Bay Seawall Habitat ProjectSeattleWashingtonIn Progress
VernacularBellevue Regional LibraryBellevueWashington2013
PresenceSalt Lake City Public Safety BuildingSalt Lake CityUtah2013
AerieUS Army Corps of Engineers HQSeattleWashington2012
Oculus SolOld Town CenterIndioCalifornia2012
Carbon VeilSeaTac International Airport Rental Car FacilitySeattleWashington2012
Dekumstruction Bike CorralAdjacent to Breakside Brewery/NEPortlandOregon2012Collaboration with Peg Butler
Bio Boulevard & Water MoleculeBrightwater Treatment FacilityWoodinvilleWashington2011
Flamingo ArroyoFlamingo Arroyo TrailheadLas VegasNevada2010Collaboration with Barbara Grygutis, Kevin Berry
Cloke Plaza University of MaineOronoMaine2010
Bucket BrigadeEast Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District HQPortlandOregon2009Collaboration with Peg Butler
Whole FlowWhole FoodsPasadenaCalifornia2009
Instrument Implement: Walla Walla CampanileWilliam A. Grant Water & Environmental CenterWalla WallaWashington2008
Poetic LicenseWilliam A. Grant Water & Environmental CenterWalla WallaWashington2008
Ice BladeOlympic Oval BridgeRichmondBritish Columbia, Canada2008
ParableSound Transit, Mount Baker StationSeattleWashington2008
Tempe Light Rail Transit BridgeTempeArizona2007
The MonolithTurtle Bay Exploration CenterReddingCalifornia2005
RosettaraayMerck-RosettaSeattleWashington2004
Ping Pong PlazaMerck-RosettaSeattleWashington2004
Beckoning CisternGrowing Vine StreetSeattleWashington2003
Mobius BandPuget Sound Environmental Learning CenterBainbridge IslandWashington2002
PortalWashington State UniversityPullmanWashington2001
Water Glass & Water TableEllington CondominiumSeattleWashington2001
MomentHarbor StepsSeattleWashington2000
Brush with IlluminationFalse CreekVancouverBritish Columbia, Canadaupdated 2009
Parapet RelayUniversity of Washington/Tacoma CampusTacomaWashington1997
King Street GardensAlexandriaVirginia1997Collaboration with Laura Sindell, Mark Spitzer, Becca Hanson
Offering Hat, Drinking Cup and Illuminated BoatKansas City Public Health FacilityKansas CityMissouri1997
Fenceline Artifact and Prairie WagonDenver International AirportDenverColorado1994
Exchanger FountainAnaheim Redevelopment AgencyAnaheimCalifornia1993
Host Analog Oregon Convention CenterPortlandOregon1991
Seattle George Monument Seattle Convention CenterSeattleWashington1989
Temporary Installations or Art Actions
TITLELOCATIONCITYSTATE/COUNTRYYEARNOTESIMAGE
Purge SeriesHudson River and other locationsNew York1983–Present
Shared ClotheslineBelltownSeattleWashington1978
Lundeberg Derby Monument SeattleWashington

Related Research Articles

Dale Chihuly American glass sculptor and entrepreneur

Dale Chihuly is an American glass artist and entrepreneur. He is best known in the field of blown glass, "moving it into the realm of large-scale sculpture".

Frye Art Museum

The Frye Art Museum is an art museum located in the First Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. The museum emphasizes painting and sculpture from the nineteenth century to the present. Its holdings originate in the private collection of Charles (1858–1940) and Emma Frye. Charles, owner of a local meatpacking plant, set aside money in his will for a museum to house the Fryes' collection of 232 paintings. The Frye Art Museum opened to the public in 1952 as Seattle's first free art museum. The museum building was originally designed by Paul Thiry, although it has since been considerably altered.

Henry Art Gallery Art museum in Seattle, Washington

The Henry Art Gallery is the art museum of the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. Located on the west edge of the university's campus along 15th Avenue N.E. in the University District, it was founded in February, 1927, and was the first public art museum in the state of Washington. The original building was designed by Bebb and Gould. It was expanded in 1997 to 40,000 square feet (3,700 m2), at which time the 154-seat auditorium was added. The addition/expansion was designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects.

Sarah Sze

Sarah Sze is an American artist widely recognized for challenging the boundaries of painting, installation, and architecture. Sze's sculptural practice ranges from slight gestures discovered in hidden spaces to expansive installations that scale walls and colonize architectures. Sze's work explores the role of technology and information in contemporary life utilizing everyday materials. Drawing from Modernist traditions, Sze's work often represents objects caught in suspension. Sze lives and works in New York City and is a professor of visual arts at Columbia University.

Gary Faigin is an American artist, author, co-founder and Artistic Director of the Gage Academy of Art, Seattle.

Anne Wilson (artist) American artist

Anne Wilson is a Chicago-based visual artist. Wilson creates sculpture, drawings, Internet projects, photography, performance, and DVD stop motion animations employing table linens, bed sheets, human hair, lace, thread and wire. Her work extends the traditional processes of fiber art to other media. Wilson is a professor in the Department of Fiber and Material Studies at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Therman Statom is an American Studio Glass artist whose primary medium is sheet glass. He cuts, paints, and assembles the glass - adding found glass objects along the way – to create three-dimensional sculptures. Many of these works are large in scale. Statom is known for his site-specific installations in which his glass structures dwarf the visitor. Sound and projected digital imagery are also features of the environmental works.

Heather Hart American visual artist, Co-Founder of The Black Lunch Table Project

Heather T. Hart is a visual artist who works in a variety of media including interactive and participatory Installation art, drawing, collage, and painting. She is a co-founder of the Black Lunch Table Project, which includes a Wikipedia initiative focused on addressing gender gap and diversity representation in the arts on Wikipedia.

Lundeberg Derby Monument

The Lundeberg Derby Monument, on First and Wall Street, is a part of a series of works in Seattle, Washington created to improve First Street in 1987 called the First Avenue Project. The statue was installed by Buster Simpson when the building behind it, the El Gaucho Inn, was still owned and occupied by the Sailor's union. The statue is dedicated to Harry Lundeberg, a key figure in the Sailor's Union Strike of 1886. Lundeberg created the sub/Union cap that was later known as the "Lundeberg Stetson".

Xenobia Bailey is an American fine artist, designer, Supernaturalist, cultural activist and fiber artist best known for her eclectic crochet African-inspired hats and her large scale crochet pieces and mandalas. She has said that her specialty is crochet and needlecraft.

Ellen Lesperance is an American artist and educator, known for her paintings. Her works are typically gouache paintings that pattern the full-body garments of female activists engaged in Direct Action protests. She is based in Portland, Oregon and has three children.

Karin Davie is a contemporary artist who lives and works in New York City and Seattle, Washington.

Degenerate Art Ensemble is a Seattle-based multi-art performance company whose work is inspired by punk, comics, cinema, nightmares and fairy tales driven by live music and visceral movement theater and dance. The group was founded and is co-directed by dancer/performer/director Haruko Nishimura and composer/conductor/performer Joshua Kohl. Degenerate Art Ensemble is both a multi-discipline performance company and a band, having performed major dance and live music works, orchestral concerts, rock shows and site-specific street spectacles.

Shinique Smith American visual artist (born 1971)

Shinique Smith is an American visual artist, known for her colorful installation art and paintings that incorporate found textiles and collage materials. She is based in Brooklyn, New York.

<i>Host Analog</i> Sculpture in Portland, Oregon

Host Analog is an outdoor 1991 sculpture by Buster Simpson located outside the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon, United States.

Barbara Earl Thomas American painter

Barbara Earl Thomas is an American visual artist, writer, and arts administrator based in Seattle.

<i>Straight Shot</i> 2007 public artwork in Seattle, Washington, U.S.

Straight Shot is a 2007 public art work at the Sand Point calibration baseline in Magnuson Park, Seattle. It was created by Seattle artist Perri Lynch, and funded by the City of Seattle's 1% for Art program, Trimble and the Washington Surveyors Association. The baseline at Sand Point predates the development of Magnuson Park, and was originally at the western edge of the Navy's Naval Air Station Seattle runway at the location. The artwork was created in part to illustrate the importance of the baseline to surveyors and to preserve the baseline – "in peril of being destroyed" – as a part of the park. The work has been nicknamed "Linehenge" by surveyors.

Diane Simpson is an artist who lives and works in Wilmette, Illinois.

Storme Webber American two-spirit interdisciplinary artist

Storme Webber is an American two-spirit interdisciplinary artist, poet, curator, and educator based in Seattle, Washington. She is descended from Sugpiaq (Alutiiq), Black, and Choctaw people.

C. Davida Ingram is a conceptual artist specializing in gender, race and social practice. Her art explores desire, space, time and memory, while questioning 21st century black female subjectivity. She is also a public speaker and civic leader. She received the 2014 Stranger Genius Award in Visual Arts. In 2016 she was a Kennedy Center Citizen Art Fellow, a finalist for the 2016 Neddy Arts Award, and 2018 Jacob Lawrence Fellow. Ingram, along with Prometheus Brown of Blue Scholars, and Tony-nominated choreographer and director, Donald Byrd at the 2016 Crosscut Arts Salon: The Color of Race. In 2017 she was featured in Seattle Magazine's Most Influential Seattleites of 2017. In the same year she received the Mona Marita Dingus Award for Innovative Media.

References

  1. Updike, Robin (January 18, 1998). "Expanding the canvas for public art: Agitator Buster Simpson's works are of the people, and for the people". The Seattle Times . p. M1. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  2. Graves, Jen (September 20, 2013). "Buster Simpson arrives in Seattle and makes his first eco-art installation downtown, with fellow artist Chris Jonic, beginning on December 4, 1973". HistoryLink. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  3. Farr, Sheila (June 18, 2013). "Enter the Woodman: The Frye Recaps the Career of Eco-Artist Buster Simpson". Seattle Met . Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  4. Graves, Jen (July 10, 2013). "The Outside Artist". The Stranger . Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  5. Ayers, Robert (July 5, 2013). "Celebrating artist Buster Simpson's 'sky's the limit' spirit". The Seattle Times. p. E23. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  6. Miller, Brian (July 30, 2013). "Visual Arts: Buster Simpson at the Frye". Seattle Weekly . Archived from the original on November 24, 2016. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  7. "Buster Simpson". www.bustersimpson.net. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  8. "Environmental Artist Buster Simpson Wins PAN Award". Blouin Artinfo Canada. Louise Blouin Media. June 25, 2009. Retrieved November 24, 2016.