Art is a Puzzle: Ken Bortolazzo
by Kit Boise-Cossart
Scattered around in the morning sunlight of Ken Bortolazzo’s Santa Barbara studio yard are a half dozen very tall, plant-like objects constructed out of lightweight stainless steel. Each stem is topped by two or three shapes, some almost transparent stainless mesh, that slowly move in the wind interacting with each other.
The shapes don’t move like a tree or bush. More like the ocean when wind ripples the surface and unexpectedly, slowly, changes direction. When the motion stops the movement repeats itself, sort of, and not in the same way. Oddly alive they seduce the viewer into extended observation. A kind of fresh wonderment and joy ensues.
Ken Bortolazzo, 2 Triangles, 2016, stainless steel
Ken found the idea of sculpture in motion in an art class at San Marcos High School where he learned about Alexander Calder’s work. The class had a torch and he cut and brazed together metals making Calder like objects. At Santa Barbara City College he learned his welding skills from Julio Agostini.
Later he got a job in town making distressed furniture. The owner had lots of equipment that Ken hadn’t used before like an arc welder and torches for auto cutouts. Among other things, the company was making metal Don Quixote wall fixtures mounted in wood frames. The owner asked Ken if he was up to the job. Ken, who was winging it, said "Sure." At the time, he was making portraits and wall pieces fabricated from flat ’60s junk yard car hoods. The material was cheap. He’d burn the paint off and turn the metal into 3D figurative busts.
Interested in metal entanglement puzzles, 3D mind teasers, Ken composed several loose pieces that begged to be taken apart and put back together. He made and sold his puzzles and sculptures at arts & crafts fairs, but income was spotty. When he and his wife had their second child, he needed a steady job and went to work for a local lobster fisherman, first building traps, then as a deck hand. It was seasonal work but it paid the bills and allowed time for art-making.
In the early ’80s his brother, a contractor, was building a winter studio in Hope Ranch for George Rickey, a well-known sculptor from New York who had roots deep into Calder’s art. Rickey needed a local studio assistant and Ken got an interview. For his resume, he presented Rickey with one of his entanglement puzzles. Looking it over, Rickey said to him, “I think you might be overqualified.” But he got the job and started making about $14/hour.
His exposure to Rickey’s work introduced him to stainless steel. With the old metal you’d get really messy, but with stainless steel, Ken said with a smile, “I could work with it all day long in my shorts and not get dirty.”
He began making stainless pieces a few feet square, entanglement-like and angular, based on simple wooden Japanese puzzles. The first ones had eighteen separate pieces with only one locking piece and came apart. He asked himself: “What’s the minimum number of pieces I can make it out of?” and he got it down to six.
From left to right: Ken Bortolazzo, Tulip, 2021; Triple Beam Variation 2, 2019; Dipper, 2012
In 1986, Ken took his entanglement puzzles to LA collector Jerry Slocum’s International Puzzle Party. He didn’t know it yet but the room was filled with puzzle makers and collectors all over the world who were going to fall in love with his pieces. His puzzle sales grew right away.
At Rickey’s main studio in New York, he had seven employees plus engineers, yet he wintered in Santa Barbara from late December through May. He was a micromanager but got along well with Ken. “It wasn’t a mentorship but we talked a lot about art and (I learned from him) just watching him work.” Ken liked it because he was in on the creative side, not the engineering, manufacturing and installation going on in NY. It was a good job, but he was still lobster fishing to make ends meet.
By the time Rickey passed on in 2002, Ken was becoming an established sculptor on his own, selling, exhibiting and represented by a number of galleries. He was still lobster fishing—now a captain—and he owned his boat. He noticed that older fisher folk aged faster from their hard life on the sea. He looked for a way out.
A gallery that represented his work contacted him. A collector wanted to commission Ken Bortalazzo for a major work for a six figure sum. He took the job and sold the boat.
Cover Image: Ken Bortolazzo, Triple Beam Variation 2, detail, 2019, stainless steel
