Eric McCue - Space Jack

Hello, I am Eric McCue. I’m an abstract artist, and I’m originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I have made Colorado my home for the past decade and a half. Currently, I live in Pueblo with my wife and two dogs. This piece “Space Jack” is inspired from a collection of materials and ideas that I acquired during my time as a wind power welder. As a member of an employee-run recycling and waste-minimizing green team at the wind tower factory, I collected interesting and sometimes unrecyclable materials with the intention of repurposing them for my own artistic endeavours. This sculpture consists of six former welding wire spools that I bought before they headed off to recycling. The spool used to hold a whopping 2,000 lbs of 5/32 wind power-specific welding wire. The simple yet extremely strong design of the tube of the rack lent itself to my intention of paying homage to the material, yet creating something unique, fun, and new, and that inspires me to inspect and understand the creation. 

This might be the least complex piece in terms of time and material that I have created, and that was the intention; to create an interesting and enjoyable piece out of found objects and reinduce them a role of something new, something never seen before, something possibly from outer space. Hence the name “Space Jack.” The movement of the structural elements of this piece hint of a jack; of a childhood game, one of grandiose and galactic level. I purposefully chose the industrial stripe paint for this purpose. When not bolted down, “Space Jack” is designed to be rolled around in flotation. It is constantly on the move, and requiring and involving need for inspection and interpretation from the viewer as it interacts with its changing environment. Thank you for taking time to check out my sculpture and learn more about it.