Spinning Wheel

Blown, sculpted, cast, assembled, glass, cocobolo, brass, leather, steel. Kinetic.
38”L / 20”W / 60”H
2007

Permanent collection of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum; Gift of Peg and Bob Van Andel

"That it looks good is one victory; that it spins wool is a revelation for an otherwise static medium. Like a ghost from craft's past, this uncanny engine lurches in near silence, dutifully going about its task as if it were the most natural thing in the world."  -Nicholas R. Bell, The Fleur and Charles Bresler Senior Curator of American Craft and Decorative Art at the Reniwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum; 40 Under 40: Craft Futures.

"With its glistening supports and distaff, Spinning Wheel rises five feet in height, offering glittering allusions to the architectures of ancient castles, walled cities, cathedrals, and mosques. A first encounter with [it} draws the eye to the myriad spiraling whorls of finials, spokes, and legs where the art of glassblowing quotes woodturning and spinning. Paiko's work exists in an imaginative space where media and operations transgress conventions. But it is the rapturously alchemical and magical play of form and media that draws us into these conversations." -Bernard L. Herman, Trace and Light, 40 Under 40: Craft Futures.