West Stockbridge — Artist Joel Hotchkiss and his one-of-a-kind creations have been hanging around the Berkshires for the better part of four decades. Late last month, the West Stockbridge resident and owner of Hotchkiss Mobiles took flight enroute to Iowa, the Hawkeye State. Upon touching down, he and his wife-turned-business-partner Sandra were met by a familiar face: that of Hotchkiss’ “Landing Egret” sculpture, which was commissioned to adorn a new corporate facility at the Des Moines International Airport.
“It’s straight up bolted together, [the wings spanning] 13 feet from tip to tip,” Hotchkiss told The Edge, citing the utility of his being present for the sculpture’s assembly—one he created with removable wings and legs (a necessity for shipping from Western Massachusetts), all of which are ultimately bolted to the bird’s torso via plates, before the entire sculpture is mounted upon a cement pedestal.
“Every once in a while, I like [creating] something that doesn’t move, doesn’t have to be balanced, doesn’t have to be suspended,” said Hotchkiss, who has been making mobiles for more than 45 years (beginning in Connecticut, ironically one town away from Alexander Calder whose studio was in Roxbury). This latest piece, the second in a pair of commissions for Signature Flight Support (a company that caters to high-end clientele who fly in and out of airports and delivers essential support services for business and private aviation, including refueling, hangarage, maintenance, repair and overhaul, and a variety of other world-class amenities with exceptional customer service), was entirely of the artist’s design—the third in a series, so to speak.
Hotchkiss ultimately accepted the commission—which came in the summer of 2021 when business was booming—so long as it could be consistent with his current style (one evidenced by a 10-foot giraffe and a six-foot kangaroo). He sent a sketch of “Egret Landing,” constructed from open-aluminum strapping replete with “shapes and gestures,” which was enthusiastically accepted. Unlike the aforementioned giraffe sculpture, whose articulated tail employs a universal joint which allows it to wiggle-waggle in the wind, “Landing Egret” is not a kinetic sculpture—for good reason.
“The bird itself […] because it’s strapped aluminum, has all the form and gesture you want but it doesn’t have the surface—so wind can just whistle through it,” Hotchkiss explains, likening the egret’s movement to that of a jet landing during turbulence. “In bigger winds, it will move [given] the extra stimulation.”
The last time Hotchkiss was commissioned—to make a mobile, for the same client, this time in Georgia—he hardly felt compelled to travel. “I shipped it down, they put it together, [and] they hung it up,” said Hotchkiss of that years ago project. Somehow, in recent years, something has shifted. “Both COVID summers were very busy here,” said Hotchkiss who—thankful for the pandemic’s silver lining—added that, “people just thought that mobiles and the stuff we have in this gallery were the cat’s pajamas.”
For someone who’s been fine tuning his craft for more than four decades, Hotchkiss is more than deserving. His artistic path was somewhat circuitous. Growing up, he remembers being en route to his grandma’s house in Waterbury, Conn. and driving past The Foundry—where Calder’s crew was hard at work riveting giant plates together to create his infamous stabiles in the yard—which he cites as an early (albeit unbeknownst to him at the time) influence. He ultimately attended Pratt Institute where he studied art and design; spent a semester abroad in Rome; then returned to work as an art director in advertising. It was during that period, in an apartment on Newbury Street in Boston, that he started making mobiles.
“I mean, if I want to do this, I’m gonna have to teach myself how to do it,” Hotchkiss says of an outright, “ah-ha” moment—one that has served him well in the ensuing years.
Like his “Landing Egret,” the sculptor has found firm footing in West Stockbridge and is ensconced in environs deemed entirely apropos. “These birds have had it together for 100 million years [and] we’re [only] 100 years into it—this is flight.
