Page 27 - the NOISE December 2012

scopIng the spectrum
story & photo by sarah gIanellI
kaleidoscopes in tandem
In the mid-90s, after 15 years earning a reputation as the “Eventually he succumbed and built a custom bathroom for characteristics of his kaleidoscopes are his ground-breaking
most innovative kaleidoscope maker of his time, Montana resident Steven Gray put down scope-making and redi- rected his multi-faceted creative gifts into opening an arti- san bakery, making violins, and starting a high-end, custom wood-working business. But financially it wasn’t panning out and, in 2011, Mr. Gray found himself in a period of personal and professional transition.
“I had pretty much decided I was going to get a regular job,” he says. “Show up for work and do what someone told me to do, though I’m not sure how long that would’ve lasted,” he laughs.
But the universe — or perhaps just two very determined Jerome superwomen — had other designs in mind. Nellie Bly (kaleidoscope heaven-on-earth for those who don’t know) owners Mary Wills and Sally Dryer had heard through the mandala of kaleidoscope connections that Mr. Gray was seek- ing a new venture, and were devising a plan.
“Mary called me up and said ‘come down and visit. I think you’ll like Jerome.’ I kind of blew it off,” he says. “But two days later she called again and said, ‘we really think you’ll like Je- rome, please come.” When she offered to pay his way, he had no reason to turn down the offer.
Correctly suspecting that Mr. Gray was obscuring the full scope of his exceptionality and influence in the kaleidoscope community, I went straight to tell-it-like-it-is Ms. Wills for a more accurate picture.
“I’d known Steve, and of him, for about 30 years,” says Ms. Wills. “He’s one of the most famous scope-makers ever. So, when I heard through a friend in Iowa that he might be avail- able, we put our recruiting team together and went after him.”
Ms. Wills and Ms. Dryer, who admired his woodworking skills as much as his scopes, suggested he pick a renovating project in their building, historically known as the Sullivan Hotel and the location of the infamous “Cribs,” small prostitu- tion chambers that once lined its backside.
There was never any pressure on Mr. Gray to start making kaleidoscopes again, but Ms. Wills admits that if he happened to feel inspired to do so, it wasn’t exactly going to upset her.
us,” continues Ms. Wells. “Not only is the woodworking incred- ible, but he was able to go to the salvage yard and take things like microwave copper tubing and visualize it as part of the wainscoting. That level of imagination, combined with the level of skill he has, is just unheard of.”
Much to everyone’s delight, Mr. Gray also began making kaleidoscopes again. His first in nearly 20 years is an open edition series called Squeeze Me, referring to the wooden button on its side that changes the angle of the interior mir- rors and, in doing so, the number of points on the star inside. Most recently, he finished a 25 piece limited edition entitled Reflections of a Parasol, a collector’s piece that showcases the unique mirror system Mr. Gray invented to create geometric imagery — the illusion of a cone — never before achieved inside a scope.
Peering into Reflections of a Parasol, which has a built-in LED light system, while holding onto the rippled, satiny, ma- ple exterior is like looking inside a work of art that opens up into unfathomable worlds upon worlds. A tower of parasol tops, untraditionally off-center, and whose colors morph with the spinning of a wheel at its end, disappear into fractured black depths below.
“When we look at life we only really get a very small look at reality,” says Mr. Gray. “The rest we make up to fill in the gaps. A kaleidoscope, in a way, responds to that — one of those little pie shapes in there is real; the rest is an illusion. One of those images is a real image; the ones next to it are reflections of that image, and the ones next to those are the reflections of the reflections, and so forth.”
There are just about as many ways to go about making a kaleidoscope as there are possibilities within one, but all have three components: something that creates an image (either a clear lens that takes in the environment or an image cell filled with colored objects to look through); the interior mir- rors that duplicate the image, and the case or exterior that holds it all together.
Mr. Gray typically uses lamp-worked glass (small pieces of torch-blown glass) in his image cell, but the distinguishing
mirror systems and the fine wood exteriors, which are sculp- tural works of art in and of themselves. Many collectors are drawn to them for their old-world instrument aesthetic, remi- niscent of an old nautical device that might be found on a Jules Verne submarine, or in the study of some erudite scien- tist.
Mr. Gray has always had a fascination with gadgets, optics, and wood-working (a talent he gleaned from his grandfather), and kaleidoscopes provided a natural fusion of his proclivities.
“As I got into kaleidoscopes and they supported me, I kept thinking, ‘I’m really lucky.’ After awhile I realized it’s not so much luck as a combination of my interests. It was a good fit
— it’s got creativity to it; it’s got enough engineering in it; and I get to do the woodwork, which is a way to keep it all together.”
Moving to Jerome is turning out to be a positive turn of events for Mr. Gray, and I don’t think anyone will be surprised if he once again takes kaleidoscope-making leaps beyond its current bounds.
“There’s something about Jerome,” he says. “Not just Mary and Sally — though they’ve been great — but also the town. There’s some sort of interesting energy going on here that I had been missing for quite awhile. Sometimes creative peo- ple will have a muse — often another person. Here, it seems like Jerome is the muse.
“I wasn’t in Paris in the 20s and I don’t know if it’s even close to that, but for a town this size, to have this many art- ists, something’s going on. It’s a spark of some sort. It doesn’t need to be known — it’s just fun. I think maybe that’s what I love about kaleidoscopes too. That they kind of go past what people can understand, and it’s fantastic to be able to create that mystery for people.”
| Sarah gianelli has many irons in the fire, some of which may be publishable in book form shortly. sarahgianelli@hotmail.com
thenoise.us • the NOISE arts & news • DECEMBER 2012 • 27