artificial rock artisan seeking design work

[geoartisan]

My name is Richard Trible. I have been in the business of exhibits construction since 1989. My particular expertise is rockwork.

It is my contention that most artificial/man made rockwork doesn’t look real. While much of this can be blamed on poor workmanship, I believe that the main problem is mediocre design.

I have done high quality museum work as well as commercial and as a result I’m fully aware of budget constraints.

Too much focus is on the detail. If the overall look is wrong, it doesn’t matter how good the detail is. In fact, I’ve done jobs with poor detail (shotcrete finish) which “reads” like real rock.

I shall also give my bias against panels. Yes, since panels are copies of real rock and the detail is difficult if not impossible to replicate. However many people believe that the same panel can be used over and over on the same job and people won’t know the difference. The more times a given panel is used, the more it all looks the same.

Remember: Nature never repeats itself.

This gets back to design but there’s one curious thing I’ve noticed about the panel work I’ve seen so far. I have yet to see a panel job that successfully replicates the rock from where the panels are made.

I’m not a geologist but I have a good understanding of rock forms. I had one geologist tell me that I understood rock forms better than he did. A geologist doesn’t care about the shape. What he/she wants is to go up to a rock formation and chip it with a hammer to get a sample.

I’ve been going out of my way to take photos of rocks since I started in 1987. I admit that I don’t have a totally comprehensive collection but I do have over 4000 images that I’ve taken. A large portion of these are from my home state of Arizona but I have photos from New Mexico, California, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, Texas, Colorado, Iowa, Ohio, Maryland, New York and some from southern Spain.

My primary desire is to do rock design. I can draw and build models. I have yet to learn CAD but at this time see no compelling reason to do so. I could offer my services as a consultant or if need be, a lead artist.

Richard Trible