CREATIVE MACHINES

We recently began a public art commission for Texas A&M International University in Laredo, Texas. The sculpture will consist of a 15’ diameter globe composed of a triangular frame made from brushed stainless steel with hammer-formed metal cutouts of the 7 continents attached to it. The negative space of the frame will be fitted with perforated stainless steel panels — when mixed with our powerful LED lighting from within creates an interesting visual moire effect that change

The first stage of assembly and installation for Shimmering Sea is underway! This installation is on a pedestrian bridge at The Watermark in Tempe, Arizona. The piece consists of hundreds of polished stainless steel discs that will gently move with the breeze, creating an ever-changing canvas of reflection of the spaces’ surroundings. Here are some behind-the-scenes photos of our team adhering hundreds of these polished discs to the railings of the bridge. Check out our last

Artwork for Camelback Commons has made its way to Phoenix, AZ for installation. This sculpture is a large-scale suspended stainless steel mobile that will hang in the open-air atrium section of the building and gently rotate with the wind. Check out behind-the-scenes photos below of our team loading the sculptures onto not one, but two trucks! Check out past blog posts about the making of this artwork: New Art for Phoenix, Fabrication for Camelback Commons, Hanging Demo and C

Our upcoming atrium artwork, The Breeze Is So Busy, for Camelback Commons in Phoenix, AZ has been painted in bright shades of blue, green, and yellow. The paint job turned out great and we can’t wait to get these gentle giants installed. Look back at past blog entries about the making of this monumental suspended sculpture: New Art for Camelback Commons, Camelback Commons Fabrication Update, Camelback Commons Hanging Demo. #joeoconnell #kineticsculpture #StainlessSteel #place

We have been featured by KOLD News 13‘s Arizona Weekend blog! Thanks so much for coming down to the shop, learning about what we do, and sharing our story with the community. Here is the video they made after visiting our workshop in south Tucson and talking with Creative Machines Founder, President, and Artistic Director Joe O’Connell. ⭐️ See the full piece here → This inventive Tucson business is an engineer’s paradise #joeoconnell #community #kineticsculpture #feature #kin

Over the last several months we have been prototyping and testing materials for a new piece of public art titled Shimmering Sea for The Watermark, an upscale residential, shopping, and business center located in Tempe, Arizona. Shimmering Sea is a wind-activated kinetic sculpture composed of an array of polished stainless steel discs. Each of these discs is suspended from just above its center of mass so that it will move with the wind. Arranged in this faceted array, the pol

Over the past few months, we have been working on a large-scale suspended sculpture for Camelback Commons in Phoenix, AZ. The sculpture will hang within the atriums of a new office building in the financial center of Phoenix. We held a hanging demonstration in our shop to see the 30ft tall, 1,100lb sculptures in action. Here are some photos of the demonstration! Look back at past blog posts about Camelback Commons: New Art For Camelback Commons, Camelback Commons Fabrication.

Growing Home was recently featured in Modern Luxury San Diego. We are so proud of this piece and can already see it begin to make a lasting impression on the surrounding community. “I wish to express how impressed I am with your work, “Growing home!” You are indeed the special artist and craftsman we wanted to make Park/12 a unique setting for residents and public alike.” – Jerry Brand, Senior Managing Director, Greystar Check out the digital version of Modern Luxury San Dieg

The City of Tucson (where we are based) has commissioned a piece titled Wet Wheel, a 20-foot wide and 14-ft tall bike wheel that will straddle a portion of a mixed-use biking/pedestrian path like a gateway. The spokes would be absent except when a cyclist rides through the center, water jets appear in the place of spokes and give the rider an approximately one-second spray of water— a much needed and refreshing way to cool off in the intense, Arizona sun! Wet Wheel will strad

Check out this video interview with Creative Machines President Joe O’Connell on our recently installed sculpture set Body Politic. #joeoconnell #community #StainlessSteel #feature #LNX #bodypolitic #interactiveart #Sculpture #PublicArt #lenexa #CreativeMachines

Growing Home has made it to Park 12 in San Diego, CA, and was successfully installed by our great team of installers and fabricators. This monumental seashell sculpture celebrates all things San Diego, with the rich history of the city laser-cut into the beach-inspired stainless steel sculpture. Here are some photos from the installation! Check out past blog posts about the making of Growing Home: Growing Home Fabrication Begins, Fabrication Progress, Fabrication Progress 2,

Growing Home was packed up and loaded onto the truck and headed towards San Diego, California! This week we have a great team of Creative Machines installers working to get the piece put into place. Stay tuned for more on the installation and to see the finished sculpture in its completed form. Want to see more on Growing Home? Check out our past blog posts: Fabrication Begins, Fabrication Update 2, Fabrication Update 3, Fabrication Update 4. #joeoconnell #community #Stainles

We've arrived at the final stages of fabrication of the Perpetual Nephron Machine! After these photos were taken, the machine was broken down, carefully packed, and shipped to San Diego to premiere at Kidney Week 2018. Kidney Week is hosted by the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) which leads the fight against kidney diseases by educating health professionals. The Perpetual Nephron Machine is designed to describe the process of uric acid removal in patients with CKD (chron

Perpetual Nephron Machine is really coming together! It has moved out of the fabrication shop and into our clean assembly area after a fresh coat of paint was added to the frame and tracks. Here the electronics team is working on placing the intricate LED lighting and getting the timing of the balls rolling perfectly. Check out past blog posts about the making of Perpetual Nephron Machine here and here! #kidneyweek2018 #joeoconnell #StainlessSteel #perpetualnephronmachine #ro

We’re in the process of designing and fabricating a large-scale suspended, stainless steel sculpture for Camelback Commons, a beautiful set of office spaces located in the financial district of Phoenix, Arizona. This sculpture consists of five massive steel stems supporting giant colorful leaves at their base. The sculpture will hang in the outdoor atrium of the building and will gently rotate within the space. Sketches of both the side and aerial view of the steel sculpture.

Our newest piece Body Politic has been installed in Lenexa, KS outside of the city’s brand new recreation center. We hope Body Politic brings joy to visitors to the rec center for many years to come. Here are some photos from the installation. Look back on the making of these sculptures in our past blog posts → New Art for City of Lenexa, Fabrication Update, Fabrication Update 2. #joeoconnell #community #StainlessSteel #kansas #bodypolitic #interactiveart #3dart #Sculpture #t

Our newest ball machine, Newton’s Convergence, has just been installed at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, PA. Here are some photos of the completed machine! Look back at past blog posts on this ball machine and see it come together from start to finish: Blog 1, Blog 2, Blog 3, Blog 4. #joeoconnell #kineticsculpture #StainlessSteel #kineticart #rollingballsculpture #georgerhoads #Exhibits #3dart #ballmachines #Sculpture #InteractiveExhibits #tucson #franklininstitute #

Body Politic is almost ready for installation in Lenexa, Kansas! The spheres are five and seven feet in diameter and are made from hand-hammered, laser-cut stainless steel. The large-scale, interactive sculptures feature more than 200 unique silhouettes, each conveying something different about daily life. Each visitor can investigate the figures and find a representation of themselves within the cut-out figures. Check out past blog posts HERE and HERE for more on this projec

Growing Home is in its final stages of fabrication and our team is now focusing on getting the internal LED lighting all set up within the massive sculpture. At night, our powerful point-source lights will project through the perforated stainless steel shell to activate the space around the sculpture with the projected silhouettes of the words that make up the surface. The illuminated landscape around the shell becomes a magical space for exploration at night and when viewed

Growing Home is a monumental depiction of a spiraled seashell; perfect for its new home in beautiful San Diego, California! The sculpture is going to be installed in Park 12 near Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres. The shell is perforated with text that tells the history of San Diego. The text is arranged in bands that spiral down the shell in the same way that a shell grows from one season to the next. The most recent dates and events in San Diego history are closest t