Culture
OU Student Puts A New Spin On Drawing
By: Amy Elyse Brighter
Posted on:
Two turntables and a few household parts was all it took to get Robert Howsare’s creativity going.
A printmaking student at Ohio University, Howsare built his own drawing apparatus that takes a record’s spinning motion and plots it onto paper.
"I've been working with reticulation, like how when puddles dry they leave rings," he said. "I was thinking about the idea of a marker of time and rotation."
Howsare, who was recently featured on wired.com, already owned the two turntables. A few stops at the local hardware store produced the other materials.
"They were just kind of domestic materials, it was things I had at my house," he said.
The original design required Howsare to spin the turntables manually, but he eventually changed the design so that the machine moved on its own.
It took Howsare two weeks to create the machine, but he says it’s not done yet.
"There’s still a lot of possibilities with it," he said. "Now that my thesis show is over, I can focus on other things and this is something I would like to revisit."
Originally a psychology major at Penn State, Howsare ended up working in construction, where he realized he liked working with his hands. He returned to school at the Kansas City Art Institute, where he got his undergraduate degree.
Inspired by posters, particularly rock posters, he was drawn to printmaking.
"The idea that they exist in the multiple, they’re more accessible," he added. "People could have a poster, and someone on the other side of town could have the same poster."