Summary of Ray Howlett Light Sculpture

1958: upon entering the university of nebraska, I changed my major from engineering to art

15 years later I was using both engineering and art together.

1964: started my interest in making mysterious and well-developed art

The following years after art college, I started experimenting to become original and for the fun of discovery. By 1973, now living in Los Angeles, I had invented a new artform of electric light, together with other forms of engineering.

Most of the major artworld in my career went “Minimal” and “Conceptual.” I chose MAXIMAL and AESTHETICS.

All my art materials were invented (or developed for access) within my lifetime

Not much art is pure contemporary in new materials, and also a purely unique artform; my sculpture is both.

1964, I started with mixed media materials: high-contrast photography, float-glass sheets, and acrylic paint. In 1973 my art materials included the newest kind of engineering: vacuum deposition of metallic coatings onto the newly perfected “float” window glass sheets; new engineering of “fluorescent” light; space-age “silicone” glue; and “stainless” steel sheet metal. In 1987 my list expanded to include aerospace optical-engineering “dichroic color,” and aerospace chemicalengineering of “optical cleaners and adhesives.”

In general, I have been an isolationist, trying to be original as a purest, not wanting influences, staying away from the artworld. My early artwork was made without knowledge of the California “Light and Space” art movement until the late 1970s, when I discovered these other artists with similar interests. I have not yet met any of them.