Audio Kinetic art a hot commodity (story audio) Photos Jeff Zachmann is dwarfed by one of his sculptures Jeff Zachmann says his sculptures are a blend of art and physics Dozens of people across the country have kinetic sculptures like this in their homes View full slideshow (5 images) Resources Zachmann web site Respond to this story Talk about this story in the MPR News Forum Submit a commentary Help us cover this story

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Kinetic art a hot commodity
by Dan Gunderson, Minnesota Public Radio
December 13, 2004

This 12 foot tall kinetic sculpture took about two months to complete. It's on display in a museum in Bemidji, Minn. (MPR photo/Dan Gunderson)

It's an artist's dream. People waiting in line to buy your work for thousands of dollars. Jeff Zachmann says he can barely keep pace with the demand for his kinetic sculptures.

Fergus Falls, Minn. — Odds and ends of metal and partially finished sculptures are scattered about Jeff Zachmann's backyard studio in Fergus Falls. A recently completed work sits to one side. It's long curving lines of stainless steel wire and pipe, evoke the image of a graceful skeleton.

Then Zachmann starts a small electric motor, and the 12-foot tall sculpture comes to life.

	Jeff Zachmann says his sculptures are a blend of art and physics

The motor drives a chain that works like an escalator. It lifts balls about the size of those you'd see on a pool table, to the top of the sculpture.

The balls then roll down a curving, gently sloped channel made of wire. Along the way the balls trip levers and fly over ramps. It's like they're traversing the world's most bizarre parking ramp.

But this study of line, shape and motion is really the result of Jeff Zachmann's lifelong fascination with ramps and tunnels.

"I grew up in the Minneapolis area and where I lived in Mounds View they had just dug a whole bunch of basements and left these great big piles of dirt. I would go out there with my friends and sisters and make marble trails down through the dirt piles. That's how I started doing this," says Zachmann.

I live an artist's dream. I make what I want to make and people are clamoring to buy it. - Jeff Zachmann

Zachmann studied art in college, and after graduation, he worked as a potter. He was still fascinated by art that moved, and then one day, inspiration struck.

"I was sitting at a show that was kind of slow and I was looking at a metal sculpture down the way and it was one of those slap on the forehead moments," says Zachmann. "I said, 'What am I working in clay for.' I already knew how to weld. So I started doing it and it took off and I'm having the time of my life with it."

Zachmann has created nearly 300 unique kinetic sculptures of all different sizes. He shapes each one by hand and welds the pieces together, starting at the top and working his way down.

	Dozens of people across the country have kinetic sculptures like this in their homes

He travels to art shows around the country and sells his pieces. One is on display at Disney's Epcot Center, a few are in museums and public spaces around the country, but most are smaller pieces people take home.

Zachmann finds people are fascinated by the combination of shape and motion. They often compare the sound of the sculpture to a bubbling fountain. Some have told him they simply sit and watch the sculpture as a way to unwind after a hard day.

"I've had people tell me, 'You could mass produce these and make a lot of money doing that.' That wouldn't be my interest," says Zachmann. "When I was a potter, I was a production potter, so I designed one cup and threw that cup thousands of times. And after awhile it kind of sucks your artistic soul out. So I told myself, 'Every one is going to be different this time.' While it's very frustrating at times to come up with that next piece, I find the more frustrating it is the more satisfied I am when it's done. That has really driven me to grow as an artist."

"If I had it all planned out ahead of time it would go together very quickly, but I don't," says Zachmann. "I would say 75 percent of the time in making it is actually sitting there scratching my head. Trying to blend the artistic and the technical is what's most difficult about the work."

	A work in progress includes objects found in a junk yard

Zachmann often has several pieces in various stages of construction at the same time. New ideas keep flowing.

"Sometimes you start working on it, and it starts coming and I really gotta keep up with the ideas and I've gotta weld fast. It's hard to explain but I've gotta get it down before the idea goes, sometimes it cuts into family time because it's like, 'I've gotta be out here for awhile,'" says Zachmann with a laugh.

When the creative work is done there might still be hours of mechanical fine tuning to make sure the sculpture works, and the balls stay on their tracks.

"The first large scale piece I made, my wife came out to the garage when I was starting to run it and she said, 'You know, you should have a hardhat.' So I stopped and went out and bought a hardhat," chuckles Zachmann. "And I hadn't had it on five minutes when a ball fell and hit me right on the head. So I stand back now when I turn it on."

The 12 foot tall sculpture in Zachmann's studio is sold, it went for $40,000. Smaller pieces sell $5,000 or $6,000. Zachmann can't make them fast enough.

	Jeff Zachmann has works on display in public spaces around the country

"I was as a show in Denver, and this guy comes up from the back and says, 'Um, I'll take that one. How much is it.' It was a $6,000 piece. That kind of stuff just floors me. I'm thinking, 'That's way more than my car.' Thank goodness they're out there," laughs Zachmann.

"I live an artists dream. I make what I want to make and people are clamoring to buy it," says Zachmann. "It's like, wow, people are paying me to do this. Cool."

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