Art In The Pearl: Fine Arts & Crafts Festival

Description:

The human figure is my vehicle of observation and communication. My medium is bronze. The subject matter of my sculpture has evolved and grown into several bodies of work. I enjoy the natural world on an intimate level through my athletic activities, but these snapshots or moments of elation cast in bronze only address how I escape that which concerns me most. Recently I have shifted my attention to our global/local community, our ambitions, camaraderie, collaborations and strife; our human condition. As my themes have become more abstract and introspective, my figures have grown to be more gestural than academic. Whether sculpting a memory from the forest, or considering the progression of humanity, I sculpt and build each piece through the entire bronze casting process.

Here is more on process, if you like. An idea may exist long before anything visual manifests. I may start with a doodle on the side of a napkin... From there an idea grows through a series of spontaneous sketches, some holding details that others have overlooked. They are all drawn together in my mind and I begin to see how they will live together three dimensionally. Then I start sculpting. Everything of course changes. I may cling to a detail, or a line, a shape or shadow from the original sketches, but this is the sculpture. It has a life of its own. I build the piece with an aluminum armature or skeleton. Then I sculpt each muscle as mother nature would, individually piecing them together as I build arms and legs... The figure. So much is communicated through the our posture, hand gestures, toe positioning, head turnng... I pay attention to this. Soon the figure is complete using, in the end, paint brushes to hone in the details. Then, rubber mold, wax work, bronze casting, bronze building, patina, mounting on the base and I've created a sculpture. The details on that process would take many pages. You may see me describe and show the process with molds, waxes and complete bronze sculptures at my booth this summer!