David C. Roy

Education and career

Roy's father was an aeronautical engineer working on jet engines, and as a boy he was interested in invention and science. In 1974, Roy received a degree in physics from Boston University and then got a job as a computer programmer for an insurance company until becoming a sculptor in 1975. The idea for the career direction came from his wife-to-be, Marji, who was at the time an art student at Rhode Island School of Design. His sculptures, which are mainly made from laminated Baltic birch hardwood, are not timepieces but they do include clockwork-like mechanisms such as escapements, suspended weights, counter-weights, and (more recently) constant force springs. They are not electrically powered because an important connection is that the viewer winds the piece by hand. The run time of early models was about 30 minutes, but he has refined the technique to the point that some run up to 40 hours on a single full wind. Many include the moving moiré pattern from co-axial spoked wheels rotating in opposite directions. Roy focuses not only on the motion but also the sound. He has developed escapements that are either nearly silent or that produce the soft clicking of wood on wood. A few incorporate wind chime tubes. In the beginning he hand drew his schematics, but he has gradually migrated to computer-assisted design and animation.

His studio is in Ashford, Connecticut.

Reception

His work has been displayed since the late 1970s in science and art museums, in art galleries, and is in corporate and private collections around the world. His work and life has been covered in publications including the New York Times, Discover magazine, the Hartford Courant, and the Boston Globe. Writing for the Baltimore Evening Sun, Carl Schoettler waxed poetically that "Echo ... looks like a spinning wheel for ghost tales at midnight. Serendipity ... might measure rainbows." Bill Aller of the New York Times found them "intriguing." A turning point in Roy's career was acceptance to exhibit at the Northeast Craft Fair in Rhinebeck, New York. Reviewing this exhibit at the 1979 show, Nancy Pappas of the Hartford Courant was impressed with the sculptures' "silent, hypnotic motion." In the Journal Inquirer Richard Tamling wrote about the "...constantly shifting relationships among shapes - as occurs in mobiles - as well as motion and sound In InformArt Magazine, Tyler Chartier found the moving parts create "...wondrous patterns that spin, swirl, flutter, and undulate in the most entrancing ways." Writing for American Woodturner Journal, Peter Rand observed that the motion in the pieces is "...intriguing in its sequence, which is infused with rhythm and evolves over time."