The first time I saw Ned’s work, I thought: “What the hell?” That reaction — part shock, part wonder — was the beginning of something new for me. His work is so different from anything else you have ever seen that it forces something loose in you. Something that was already there, waiting.
What Ned is pointing to is not easy to explain. He doesn’t just make kinetic sculptures. He demonstrates a truth — that the act of creation is itself a way of knowing. In his own words: “I’ve learned that truth is exposed to us through the miracles of our creations, and it becomes obvious when we work with nature to create. When you let the pieces fit together naturally and let them come together in their own unique ways, you become a force of creation and you will be blessed by miracles of natural flow.”
You can’t simply say that to someone. You have to show them. And that is exactly what Ned does — through every kinetic contraption, every found object coaxed into motion, every surrealistic invention that somehow makes perfect sense once it’s moving. His work doesn’t explain the philosophy. It is the philosophy, made physical and alive.
There are people who change your life by telling you something. And then there are people who change your life by showing you something you already knew but couldn’t yet see.
The Skills Were Always There
I had been building things since I was a child. Electro-mechanical work, motion-based construction — I went into the military with those skills and I loved them. But I had never once thought to apply them to my art. That connection simply hadn’t been made.
And then I encountered what Ned had created, and a light bulb turned on. I realized I had a whole set of abilities I had never thought to use — that my hands already knew what my imagination hadn’t yet claimed. Ned gave me the freedom to discover something that had been bouncing around in me for years. He has no fear. He has the ability to express. And I had the same mechanical ability. I just hadn’t known it yet.
After meeting Ned, I started making Rube Goldberg pieces. I applied myself fully to building through mechanics. I have been very successful as an artist ever since. This work is not optional for me — if I’m not building, life gets to me. Moving into this realm changed my life and my career trajectory completely.
“What Ned is telling people is not easy. You can’t say it — you have to build it. The act of making something physical, something that has never existed before, exposes a truth that no book or instruction can reach. That is what I learned in Beveldom. That is what changed my life.” — Steve Bowles
Everything Around You Wants to Be Used
Ned’s Available Resource Technology — what he calls A.R.T. — is a framework built on the idea that creativity flourishes when you work with what is available. You look around and you realize that everything around you wants to be used. It’s not about having the right materials. It’s about seeing the possibility in whatever is in front of you and letting the pieces come together naturally.
Bevel speak is like its own language. It involves mechanics, hardware and the objects we find along the road. There is a joy in reusing materials — in finding the dignity and potential in things others have set aside. That is not just an artistic practice. It is a way of moving through the world.
He affected me thirty years ago and it has stuck with me this entire time. I tell people about Ned because I want them to know — Ned has a lot of output. It’s like a big plate of donuts that are free. Just save some for others.
A Bright Light. A Road Map.
Not everyone who encounters Ned’s work will have the same experience. But everyone who spends time in Beveldom is encountering something real: the evidence that a human being, working with available materials and an open mind, can build a world. Can make something that has never existed before. Can become, as Ned says, a force of creation.
That is what Ned showed me. Not a technique. Not a style. A possibility — and the proof that it was already mine to claim.
Ned is a road map with a destination. He lit the spark, and I fed the fire. It is hard to understand how someone can impact you this much. But he really changed my life.