A couple of years ago, walking down a street in my neighborhood, I spotted something bizarre looming over the fence to someone’s back yard. It looked a little like an antique spaceship. Or a hot air balloon made of iron. I looked closer and saw the tops of other strange structures and before long I was working my way along the wooden fence, peeking in every opening, trying to see what on earth it could all be.

After a few minutes, I heard a voice ask “Would you like to come in and look around?” And that’s how I met sculptor and artist Dave Lane. He spent about an hour with me, showing me his huge and otherworldly sculptures made from recycled steel agricultural and industrial parts and explaining a little of what he was doing and why (most of which sailed right over my head).

At that time he exhibited only one piece a year at the California State Fair, in part because it was the only venue with a space large enough for his work.

Now he has a one-man show at UC Davis, in a space that’s still too small for him. Or maybe not, because his great hulking art machines are very powerful in the windowless gallery. One, called “Heart of Gold,” he describes as “basically a Space-Time Ship. Only, I don’t believe in Time anymore.” The Machine for Making Twilight referred to in my title also has to do with the ability to control time by making twilight.

There are some smaller sculptures as well, including “families” of small figures on old tricycle bases clustered together, and the Keyes, which are variously sized figures (top center in the photo, mostly with a large head-like wheel on top). The Keyes were the first sculptures he made and the only ones he refuses to talk about.

This show also includes his paintings, drawings, and dioramas. The dioramas are small boxes, about six-by-six inches, populated by tiny plastic figures and accompanied by parables. The few I read (because the text is mounted below the boxes, you had to practically get down on your knees to read them), were both mysterious and incredibly funny.

He was on hand Sunday to lead an impromptu tour of the exhibit and explain, sort of, what it was all about. He described as cross sections of his brain a large series of drawings that were formed by lots of intriguing phrases in his small and tidy handwriting in patterns on the paper.

He never sells his art, and google seems to indicate that he’s unknown outside of this area, but I really love his work. It’s mysterious, meticulously crafted, full of humor, and it really makes you think. And some of it is breathtakingly beautiful as well.