The Pasta Playground was conceived towards the end of a three-week period of overzealous carbohydrate avoidance. The holistic view of the piece will show a flourish of sinuous curves before the viewer recognizes the elements as resembling noodles. The project is inspired by penmanship in illuminated manuscripts, by Maori woodcarvings, highway interchanges, Da Vinci’s drawings of water eddies, and Louis Sullivan’s architectural ornamentation. In the case of the ramen noodles, I’m interested in the transitions from the technological to the organic. Dense, mechanical switchbacks on one side suggest circuitry; as the ramen block unravels at the other end, it suggests brain morphology, then meandering vegetation. The calligraphic spaghetti flourish provides a fun structure to climb and explore. The “art” lies not in luxurious materials but in the rich patterning of hundreds of custom pipe bends and welded pipe elbows. Galvanized steel–a durable, urban material–becomes ornamental, noble and sculptural.