密歇根新闻广播 密歇根的工匠 锡怒人

 

Cre Fuller was already at work in the garage behind his Ypsilanti house when I arrived. I had seen photos of his work online, but I was not quite ready for the display set up in the garage. It's great eye candy.

"I make robot-inspired sculptures. You know, I try to make them look like vintage robots from the future," Fuller said, glancing around at probably 40 of his creations in the workspace. He says he usually has a few more than that on hand.

Vintage from the future. That's an interesting phrase. I ask him to explain.

"I do want them to have that vintage aesthetic¹. You know it's that version of what people in the 1950s thought the future would be like, you know, robots and tin men helping² us out around the house," Fuller said. "It hasn't really panned out. We don't have any flying cars yet. You know, some of them look a little menacing. As I go, my trajectory³ is a little bit spooky, and that's how I kind of get my artistic⁴ fun out of it."

Fuller says he started making the robot sculptures simply to put some art on his walls at home. People liked them. They wished they had one.

Cree Fuller's wife Kristen Cuhran Fuller turns on some of the Tin Angry Men lamps.

"I thought they were gag gifts. I didn't think much of it. So, I just started making them. You know, they evolved and light bulbs were implemented⁵, and they became lamps, and they became more popular. I just figured I should spend a little bit more time and energy on them. You know, taking it a little bit more seriously," Fuller said.

He says he's always made arty things and this was sort of perfect for him.

"I'm a tinkerer, you know, taking things apart, putting them back together in a different way. That's all it pretty much amounts to."

He makes the Tin Angry Men using found objects. I asked where he got all the free or almost free material.

"Recycle Ann Arbor⁶ is a huge source of various scrap⁷, people just dropping off boxes of random⁸ things out of grandpa's garage. Those are my favorite: rusty⁹ old boxes of treasure. Antique stores, resale shops, side of the road. Now that people know I do this stuff, people are apt to drop off their scrap on me, and I can fish through it and see what's good. As I put it, I just kind of throw it on the pile and wait for inspiration to strike."

As Fuller shows me around his workshop, I snap some pictures of his shelves. They're filled with old coffee pots, thermoses, and a whole bunch of mid-century kitchen utensils¹⁰.

"I think the old aluminum¹¹ just has the patina¹². I can polish it and make it look chrome-y or I can leave it rough and it has that matted look, and it looks dated," he said.

Fuller says when companies started using stainless¹³ steel and harder metals things like coffee pots lost some soul. He says the kitchen gadgets¹⁵ from the 1940s and 50s just look cooler and make for better robots.

When he started making robot head sculptures as lamps, people loved them. He started selling more of them and getting more serious about making them. He was getting ready for an art exhibition and needed a name for his endeavor.

"A friend of mine...just kind of said, ‘What are you going to call your tin angry men?' Well, why not that? And I just kind of went with it. Again, at that point, not really taking it too seriously. I didn't understand the scope or how much people love robots and things that look like robots. I think it really speaks to a lot of people and it certainly speaks to me."

Fuller says he can make a smaller piece in about a day. Larger ones take longer, especially if there's painting involved or if he just can't find that one gadget¹⁴ that would complete a piece. There are a lot of boxes of "spare parts" in the garage. Sometimes it takes a while. But, he says, it's worth it. The key is making something that makes him happy in the end.

"I'm still doing what I want. I don't take a whole lot of commissions. It's just like — this is what I want to do; this is what I want to make. And people have been good about accepting what comes out of my brain, I guess, and from my hands."

Listen above for my full conversation with Cre Fuller on Tin Angry Men Industries in Ypsilanti, our latest Artisan of Michigan.

1 aesthetic   

adj.美学的，审美的，有美感

参考例句：

• My aesthetic standards are quite different from his.我的审美标准与他的大不相同。
• The professor advanced a new aesthetic theory.那位教授提出了新的美学理论。

2 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

3 trajectory   

n.弹道，轨道

参考例句：

• It is not difficult to sketch the subsequent trajectory.很容易描绘出它们最终的轨迹。
• The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory.抛物体所循的路径称为它的轨道。

4 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

5 implemented   

v.实现( implement的过去式和过去分词 )；执行；贯彻；使生效

参考例句：

• This agreement, if not implemented, is a mere scrap of paper. 这个协定如不执行只不过是一纸空文。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The economy is in danger of collapse unless far-reaching reforms are implemented. 如果不实施影响深远的改革，经济就面临崩溃的危险。 来自辞典例句

6 arbor   

n.凉亭；树木

参考例句：

• They sat in the arbor and chatted over tea.他们坐在凉亭里，边喝茶边聊天。
• You may have heard of Arbor Day at school.你可能在学校里听过植树节。

7 scrap   

n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废

参考例句：

• A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
• Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。

8 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

9 rusty   

adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的

参考例句：

• The lock on the door is rusty and won't open.门上的锁锈住了。
• I haven't practiced my French for months and it's getting rusty.几个月不用，我的法语又荒疏了。

10 utensils   

器具，用具，器皿( utensil的名词复数 )； 器物

参考例句：

• Formerly most of our household utensils were made of brass. 以前我们家庭用的器皿多数是用黄铜做的。
• Some utensils were in a state of decay when they were unearthed. 有些器皿在出土时已经残破。

11 aluminum   

n.(aluminium)铝

参考例句：

• The aluminum sheets cannot be too much thicker than 0.04 inches.铝板厚度不能超过0.04英寸。
• During the launch phase,it would ride in a protective aluminum shell.在发射阶段，它盛在一只保护的铝壳里。

12 patina   

n.铜器上的绿锈，年久而产生的光泽

参考例句：

• The trophy has a beautiful green patina.这个奖杯表面有一层漂亮的绿锈。
• Ancient bronze animal are covered in vivid green patina.古代青铜器动物被绿色彩铜绿笼罩。

13 stainless   

adj.无瑕疵的，不锈的

参考例句：

• I have a set of stainless knives and forks.我有一套不锈钢刀叉。
• Before the recent political scandal,her reputation had been stainless.在最近的政治丑闻之前，她的名声是无懈可击的。

14 gadget   

n.小巧的机械，精巧的装置，小玩意儿

参考例句：

• This gadget isn't much good.这小机械没什么用处。
• She has invented a nifty little gadget for undoing stubborn nuts and bolts.她发明了一种灵巧的小工具用来松开紧固的螺母和螺栓。

15 gadgets   

n.小机械，小器具（ gadget的名词复数 ）

参考例句：

• Certainly. The idea is not to have a house full of gadgets. 当然。设想是房屋不再充满小配件。 来自超越目标英语 第4册
• This meant more gadgets and more experiments. 这意味着要设计出更多的装置，做更多的实验。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史