Northern Moon is a fine example of what an artist can accomplish when offered a studio, two assistants, a choice collection of metals, and a one-week deadline to create. During a visit over Christmas break with Canadian artist Rod Dowling, Illinois artist and SIUC art professor Aldon Addington created Northern Moon. Away with a project in Toronto, Dowling turned his Hamilton, Ontario studio and assistants over to Addington. Addington immediately began sketching.
ALDON ADDINGTON, Northern Moon, 1991, stainless steel, Collection of Goldman-Kuenz Sculpture Park
Two huge disc-shaped pieces—which were to become Addington’s moon—were previously purchased by Dowling at auction. Originally constructed as the end pieces for container tanks, these discs are made of spun stainless steel, which is rare. Typically it is aluminum that is spun or turned. Inspired by the natural moon, Addington began.
After sketching his ideas, Addington constructed a small maquette of the sculpture. With his model in hand and lots of steel tubes, he visited a nearby metal shop. Hamilton is known as a steel town. The bent steel tubes circling the moon were fabricated at the metal shop according to Addington’s precise specifications. Returning to the studio, steel tubes at the ready, Addington and his two assistants, with the short deadline in their sights, began. Before the week was out, the twenty-two foot tall Northern Moon was completed.
Northern Moon, detail
Aldon Addington taught art at Southern Illinois University Carbondale from 1967 to 2001. Addington guest-taught sculpture workshops around the world including the Glasgow School of Art, Scotland; the University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland; and Art Park in Lewiston, New York. His art is represented at Cedarhurst’s Goldman-Kuenz Sculpture Park, the Illinois State Museum, the University of Lapland as well as in numerous private collections across the US. Addington has a second sculpture, Untitled from 1980, that also resides at Cedarhurst.
