"Bunny Foo Foo"

Public Art Projects / Hall Winery, St., Helena, California

"Bunny foo foo"

Size: 30 x 15 x 7 ft. / Material: 316 grade Stainless Steel / Location: Hall Winery, St., Helena, California

Completed: 2014

The project began with a directive from Kathryn and Craig Hall in the creation of “Bunny foo foo”.

The tune was sung by Kathryn Hall to her children as they were growing up.

Little Bunny Foo Foo is a children's poem, involving a rabbit harassing a population of field mice. The rabbit is scolded and eventually punished by a fairy. The poem is sung to the tune of Down By The Station (1948), and melodically similar to the popular French Canadian children's song Alouette(1879).

Whilst I am not normally an artist that heads to such directive, I thought it an exciting challenge to have the opportunity to create within such parameters and perhaps create something that signifies the above and much, much more. The site and majestic surroundings reinforced a desire to try to successfully integrate and subversively interrupt a connection to place.

My experience and knowledge of the physicality of rabbits came from working on the project at the Sacramento Airport. The shapes of the particular limbs, body, positioning and dynamics of movement were all present in my consciousness. This permitted me to play and have a basis by which I could then implement some digital exercises in surface treatments and push some newfound methodologies I had discovered in the digital studio.

Once I had attained the posture and positioning, that of leaping from across the Highway into the Hall Winery property, I knew the resonance of what I was creating would have a significant impact on the vista surrounding the property.

After many attempts, some good and others not so, I became attached to a vine inspiration of how I might represent the “bunny” . This remained at the core of many future attempts of manipulating the form and surface until I arrived at the current abstraction leaping from the vineyards.