Columbia Mammoth Skeleton for Moses Lake Museum and Art Center
I was commissioned by Pacific Studio to create a life-sized Columbia Mammoth skeleton for the new Moses Lake Museum and Art Center in Washington. The resulting sculpture is made from 95% recycled materials, mostly old farm equipment and agricultural tools. The process took 305 hours of fabrication time, and the photos below illustrate that journey:

The beginning ingredients for the Mammoth. Heavy stock steel on left (the only part of the sculpture
that was not recycled material) and farm equipment on the right.

 

My sculpture studio is a 1350' sq. foot warehouse, and the Mammoth needed most of that space.
It ended up being 20 feet long and 14.5 feet tall, and was so large it was difficult to photograph in the studio.

 

A small collection of the many different found objects and farm implements used in the Mammoth

 

I've had this big gear for a long time, and knew it would be perfect for the Mammoth

 

Because the Mammoth was going to need to travel from my studio to the Museum in Washington, I had to build
it in a way that it could be taken apart and reassembled, and because the Museum is brand new,
they requested I do no welding on site. BIG bolts used to attach legs, head, ribs, etc. and lots of engineering problems to solve.

 

Initial framework for Mammoth skeleton. Needed a strong armature to support the
used/recycled farm equipment (which doesn't have structural strength)

 

Armature connected at key points

 

Horseshoes define the beginning of the spinal column

 

First lines to describe the skull

 

Lots of cutting up of things like wheelbarrows and tractor fenders

 

Cutting and burning metal things means "safety first"

 

Pickax heads made great vertebrae

 

Farm fence posts as ribs

 

Various sizes of irrigation pipe made tusks

 

More ribs (and reference images on the background wall)

 

The armature was covered with larger shapes that suggest bone forms

 

The skull went through several variations before it worked right (this was not the final version)

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you're in Moses Lake, WA you should stop by to meet the Mammoth at the Museum.