Doug Boyd

Reading Rhino

Constructed of steel and painted with a “transparent” blue paint, the Reading Rhino was commissioned by the Peoria Library though the INFLUX Public Art program. Originally contracted to be located at the main entrance of the library for one year. The contract has been extended for another year with library expressing interest in purchasing the Reading Rhino as a permanent installation.

MonRobot

MonRobot began as an idea while hiking the John Muir Trail, a 210 wilderness hike. Realizing that I was still using my cell phone even in the remote wilderness, I played with the idea that one day all humans will be robots. And eventually life will come full circle despite an endless database of knowledge the robot discovers an actual book. The irony is that while MonRobot (technology) sits on his bench reading a book, people walk by looking at the their phones (technology). The book in his hands tells this story and encourages people to tag their pictures on Instagram

Unzipped

I woke up one day and decided that I wanted to split a steel I-beam in half and put a zipper on it. Unzipped was nothing more than a challenge to my own abilities. I simply wanted to see if I could create what I saw in my mind. I firmly believe in pushing my abilities into unknown territory. The Unzipped sculpture is a 12" x 6" steel I-beam that was split and pulled apart. The zipper portion is a combination of cnc cut zipper pieces and hand shaped zipper pull.