Buster Simpson

MOBIUS BAND, 2002

 “Tug on anything and you will find it connected to everything else” (a quote attributed to John Muir) the text is hand lettered on steel and while the paint was wet dusted with charcoal.

The suspended sculpture, Mobius Band, encircles a section of an 92-foot long recycled old growth Douglas fir beam integrated into the roof truss of the Great Hall. Mobius Band consists of a 12-gauge steel band measuring 12 inches wide by approximately 40 feet long which, when twisted into a mobius loop, creates a 14 foot diameter band.  Mobius Band is made from the same type of band saw blade which once milled this historic beam at the nearby Blakeley Mill about 100 years ago.

With a continuous edge, this saw blade is transformed into a symbol of sustainability and infinity. As the band makes its graceful embrace of the beam, this mobius path brings us back where the beginning is never ending.

At the opposite end of the Great Hall, the 92 foot beam is supported by a Coastal Salish house post in the image of Vi [Taqwšəblu] Hilbert – an admired Upper Skagit elder recognized throughout the region for her efforts to preserve the oral literature and culture of the native Puget Sound Lushootseed people.  The 20 foot red Cedar post was lifted in place February 15 2001 and the Great Hall constructed around it and, in 2002, counterbalanced with the installation of Mobius Band.

Buster Simpson
Buster Simpson's Website

Mr. Simpson has created a sculptural art piece using the circular saw blade as the medium, with engraved inspirational messaging, that will surround a key architectural element in the IslandWood’s Great Hall and Welcome Center.

Mr. Simpson’s work combines environmental and urban issues, illustrating, in many of his pieces, the discord between the systems of interdependence and those of convenience. He has worked as an artist, consultant, teacher, lecturer, and panelist. He ahs had numerous public commissions, one-person exhibitions and group exhibitions.

A resident of Seattle, Washington, Mr. Simpson received his BA and MFA from the University of Michigan. He has received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the university of Michigan, an Honorary American Institute of Architects award from the organization’s Seattle Chapter, the Flintridge Foundation Visual artist Award, the Howard S. Wright Award for Outstanding Support of the Arts, Seattle Arts Commission, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship as an Individual in 1981 and 1991, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for sculpture in 1988, as well as a Special Projects Gant from the NEA in 1980.