Small Art Work by Roy Mackey
For those interested I do have a pile of small artworks available that are not listed under "Available Art Work" I will be adding pics of these also shortly. Stay tuned. All the work I do is signed, dated and documented. I have just started revamping this page so stay tuned. It will be a bit mixed up as I switch and put the newer stuff at the top.
Here is one of my latest pocket sculptures. This is a 1.25" steel ball wrapped in a bead of copper. These pieces have a delicious feel to them and great if you are limited in space. Because they have a great feel in your hand they are more than something to just look at. Copper is a magic metal.
Here is a strange little piece I did using a vintage pair of pliers. I am a real fan of small hand holdable sculptures. It seems you can really get into them a lot more. Larger work is great but there is something about holding unusual art in your hands. Small is the new Big. This one is signed dated and documented but no longer available....
Here is a very unusual piece I recently did. The piece of metal is a found object and like nothing I have seen before. Not sure what the hell it was for. I wrapped it in a bead of copper and polished it. It has a great feel in your hand, partly because of the copper. This piece is only about 2.5" long. Of course is signed, dated and documented.
Here is a strange little copper sculpture that looks like two worms. It is really small... just over an inch and a half long. Solid copper and of course signed dated and documented.
Here is a little copper sunburst. It is only about 2.75" across. Another little studio sketch as I like to call them. Of course signed dated and documented for your collecting pleasure.
Here is a small copper sculpture I did using part of a thck plate of copper I picked up. A neat little pocket sculpture that is about 1.75" high. Like all my work... signed dated and documented.
SIGNED KEY CHAINS
Years ago while living in Nanaimo I started making key chains in my spare time. They were usually just small stars welded out of sheet steel. The one unusual thing about them was the fact that they were all hollow and would rattle when shaken. Anytime someone bought a large piece of my artwork I would custom make them a key chain that reflected some aspect of who they were. I never made a lot since I never sold much artwork but just the same they got interesting. The pic below is of a few key chains belt buckles and small bottles I had welded up. This shot was taken back in 1995.
The most common were the plain small stars. I must have made hundreds of them but they are all long gone now except a few I may have stashed away. I had set up at a BC Place gift show one year and sold a pile to different gift stores around BC. In fact years later when I moved to Vancouver there was a gift store in gas town that still had a couple in their store. I guess no one really wanted the dam things. Eventually I guess they gave them away or threw them out maybe.
This one here I did back in about 94 or 95 also. It had inlaid brass in the centre. It of course was also hollow and would rattle when shaken. I used this one myself for years before finally wearing out the eyelet part. This pic was taken after I had just fixed the eyelet part. All the keychains I did in Nanaimo had thinner eyelets. Back then I could not afford the thicker rod I guess.
The top one in this pic was a custom one for collector of my work and the lightning bolt was bought by a friend of mine who gave it to her famous muscian friend as a gift. These were done about 1993 or so.
This is another one I did for myself. Of course it is also hollow and rattles. I converted this one over from a key chain to a pocket sculpture when I moved to Vancouver.
This is one of the first pocket sculptures I did back in Nanaimo around 1993 or so. I thought they were great since you could easily carry some art with you. Plus they gave non smokers a chance to keep their hands busy while talking to people. I was going to invent one that would stink the more you handled it but did not think it would go over well even though smokes suckered a lot of people for a long time. I just figured I did not have the marketing money money to convince people it was cool.
Here is another pocket sculpture with inlaid brass. The back side had inlaid brass also. This piece was done in 1996.
This one was made to look like an old time popsicle. Of course it rattles also.
Here is another steel ring I did that is also hollow inside and rattles.
This is one of the thinner ones I did back then which also rattled. All the above ones here were hand welded using a gas welding torch and 20 gage sheet steel.
You can see on this one the eyelet which was too thin. I guess it was all the steel wire I had back then since money was tight in Nanaimo. This one fit your finger tips perfectly. There used to be two of them. I would meditate with one in each hand between my finger tips. It gave you a very strange zen like feel. People would laugh until they tried it themselves.
This is the one and only pipe I ever made. I had lots of ideas to make more but still have not gotten around to it. I no longer smoke myself but will still probably make more at some point. I was always nervous about them since it has been my goal/dream to move to the States. Of course since it is now an almost a miltary type police state down there which strictly bans smoking anything other than government taxed brands I have avoided making pipes. I just did not want to take the risk of ruining my chances of moving down there.
Here is one I did back in 95 or so that was not hollow.
After I got to Vancouver and scored a tig welder I started doing some in stainless steel. I have not done a lot of these since they take a couple of days to make one…. too much work and I am lazy. This is also hollow and will rattle when shaken. This is one I made for myself. My older key chains had too thin an eyelet so now I have made the eyelets on them thicker.
These are some of my most recent ones. They are cnc cut using my new PlasmaCam machine out of 10 gage plate steel and are about 3.5″ long. They are signed and dated
Here is a variation of the first one. These ones are also around 3.5″ long
Here is another one of my pocket sculptures. It was done using 1/4″ cnc cut plate steel and tig welding. Just under 2″ long.
I only did a few of these ones. Did not really like them… more of a dodge hemi guy. Just under 3.75″ long.
These fork ones are cnc cut out of 10 gage plate steel. The CNC cut ones do not rattle of course. They are 4″ long.
CNC cut from .25″ plate steel 3.75″ long.
For this one here I used one of my arrow heads I use to make my arrows with. The arrow head is also hollow and will rattle when shaken. So far I only made one of these and it now belongs to the famous painter Jordon Roberts. By shear miracle we were able to score a couple of his amazing paintings. I may do some more of these in the future but not sure.
This is one of my newer hollow key chains done in stainless steel and polished. This one is about 3.5″ long. Unfortunately these are too much work for me to make many of them. I really do like the clean feel of the stainless for a change. Stainless is also a very tough steel.
Here is what is left of a perfectly good, brand new 3/4″ wrench.
Stay tuned as I will be putting more images up here as I dig them out. I will also be posting any new pocket sculptures here as I do more.
If You get on my contact list you can get updates every so often on new work and shows etc that I have coming up. These are titled LIVE ART NEWS IN AMERICA and go out every month or so. Keep up to date on new work, latest books and other funny stuff. Just to note I never sell or give out emails to anyone for any reason.
ph. 604-269-3500
