The Deer of Tolerance

Dear Chris,

I’m experimenting with the medium – what follows is a digital version of what I would’ve hand written, sketched, kept a copy and mailed to you. Enjoy the pictures below – I doubt I would’ve printed them out and included them with the letter.

Last weekend I headed up towards Boston for a wake for someone I knew from the Spirit of Place class and trip to Ireland. Sorry not to cross paths with you on the way up or back, and hope your trip went well.

Around the same time I decided to attend the wake I started thinking of making a sculpture in memory of my friend Brendan. On the trip in Ireland he was pontificating in this thick Boston accent on the ‘idear of tolerance’, to which someone else on the bus retorted “what’s the deer of tolerance?” The deer subsequently became the name of a mixed drink, a rallying cry, an ever prudent reminder of the value of construction tolerances.

Inspired by the recent trip to see Calder’s Circus, and with copper wire available to use, I sketched out ideas for a wire sculpture of a deer’s head. Trying to draw with as little lifting up the pen from the paper as possible. A whiff of Bojack Horseman side character – Calder loved the spiral eyes of the deer and had fun unraveling them a bit.

Sunday I drove up to Massachusetts with the deer sculpture riding shotgun, falling to the floor when I had a fender-bender on Interstate 93 (no harm no damage). I brought extra wire and some pliers to fasten it to the top of a wood post on the side of the road near where Brendan lived.

Wire is not so easy to photograph, and it felt a bit cheap to do so. But still satisfied with the effort and execution of the Deer of Tolerance.