Artist Tim Hawkinson

A motorcycle constructed out of feathers by artist Tim Hawkinson.

While visiting the Walker Art Museum last week, there was a piece on display there that reminded me of an incredible exhibit I saw at LACMA in 2005. I couldn't remember the artist's name off the top of my head, so after doing some archival research through LACMA's site -- I found the artist in question and wanted to share a little bit of his work with you.

Tim Hawkinson is a Los Angeles-based artist and considered by many to a "phenomenon within and beyond the art world". The show I saw had fascinating and larger-than-life cross sections of his body of work spanning two decades. They included meticulously detailed drawings, minute constructions, inflated latex casts and fantastical mechanical contraptions.

I wouldn't ever consider myself an art expert or connoisseur in any capacity and most often when I'm walking around art museums, I am utterly confused why anyone would consider half the pieces on display as "art". However, I never studied art history in depth and have a loose understanding of why Monét, Van Gogh, da Vinci or Picasso were such important artists of our time. My taste in art is more of the pop variety and the "low brow" art movement mostly showcased in Juxtapoz magazine.

So, when I come across an artist such as Tim Hawkinson and find myself recalling his art work years later, clearly the artist struck a chord with me as I remember his pieces so vividly. Mr. Hawkinson has spent the past 2 decades making a vast variety of things - sculptures, collages, room-size installations - that do many things, often as surrogates of the artist. Usually, his works are both absurd and funny, like clocks made of Coke cans or hairbrushes, or a pile of laundry whose buttons, controlled by sensors, follow a viewer's movements. Some are inert, like a tiny bird skeleton created from the artist's nail clippings or a huge bear made of granite boulders.

If you ever get a chance to see any of his work, I promise you will be just as pleased as punch at his skill and creativity.

This was my favorite piece of his - he somehow made a machine that wrote his signature in cursive handwriting over and over again (as you can see on the pieces of paper on the floor).

An up close look at the Signature Chair machine. How did he do this?!