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Imagery Animals
From the time mankind began to make marks and assemble stone, mud and
sticks he has attempted to capture, in two or three dimensions, out of
materials at hand, the wonder, respect and awe we feel for animals. From
the caves at Lascoux to the sculptures created by modern artists is not
such a big conceptual jump. Animals compel our attention by virtue of
the similarities of their parts to our own. They provide clues as to how
we are to act in this world. For that reason and others I sculpt them
and present them to the viewer.
Imagery Figures
The body human is always in a state of response to life, even in repose.
In its language of gesture it reflects our emotional, intellectual and
physical state. In addition, it has the wonderful ability to store up
a history of our responses to life in skin, muscle and bone and reveal
them in a language all its own, universally understood and readily
available for all to read at a glance. I like to think of my work as three
dimensional poems in the language of the body.
Imagery Abstract
I think I began working abstractly when my emotional responses to the
world around me simply outran my intellect. Perhaps, in my effort to interpret
certain messages I was getting, I simply ran out of the language that
representation allows. There seems to be some benefit for me in short-circuiting
the connection to that part of the brain that demands recognition and
relying on whatever takes control from that point to inform the work.
Because the language of the abstract seems to be universally understood
by those with the capacity to make that leap, I present them to the viewer,
I do so with the understanding that the translation of each work is unique
for each viewer and dependant upon what each viewer brings to the work.
Titles
I am not very good at naming things. The skill that naming something demands
is different then the skill it takes to conceive of it and create it.
Sometimes, however, the naming of a piece is an essential ingredient to
understanding it. Some of my works are well named and with others the
title is merely descriptive. I feel no obligation to a title in most cases
and if you have a work of mine the title of which does not adequately
describe your reaction to the work, simply rename it to suit your response.
Its fine with me.
Poetry
There are times when the static response of two or three dimensional forms
is inadequate. Using words as a creative medium is something I have only
toyed with, but words have allowed me to experience a flowing response
to an idea from which I get a great deal of satisfaction. The blank page
provides me with a canvas of such large scale that I can present a virtually
unlimited response to an idea. I can add or delete, refine and pursue
a thought within or without the confines of rhyme or the limits of substances
and space. In a sense, it is not so different from working in two or three
dimensions, in that each word or phrase elicits an image in my mind. Rather
than the effect of a single image, I create using a myriad of these word
images to create ever-changing word patterns that describe my emotional
response to life that runs the gamut from spectacular to mundane.
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