I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis on Sculpture from
Eastern Kentucky University.
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| Red Ant Found Object Assemblage |
From the beginning this blog was intended to bring all of my interests, and influences together: Pop Culture, History, Science Fiction, Toy's, Collectibles, and perhaps most importantly Art. Specifically my own art. Not only to bring them together, but to show the common threads that bind them together. Essentially to let other people see
what I see.
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| Extinction Event Steel, Stone, Plaster |
With that being said, today I'd like to walk you through my 2004 BFA Show. The show was exhibited at the Fred P. Giles Gallery on the Eastern Kentucky University campus in May of 2004. The show included 14 of my pieces including 6 sculptures, and 3 paintings. 5 drawings represented the balance of the number. In retrospect, the drawings were perhaps unnecessary. Not that they were of lesser quality, they simply didn't represent a cohesive whole as is the intention of a BFA show. For now I'll be setting the drawings aside, perhaps I'll address them in a later blog entry.
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| Bronze Destro |
Much of my work reflects elements of Science Fiction or Pop Culture. I often draw inspiration from the toys, movies, and comic book's I grew up with. Sometimes quite literally, other times obliquely. In my mind there is always a narrative that goes with the piece. I'd like to think that narrative comes across, but the truth of the matter is that art is subjective. Everyone, by necessity, brings their own experiences, and therefore their own interpretations to each piece. If there is a story to be told, it is to be told as much by the audience as it is by the creator.
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| Pallet Knife Fight Painting |
I'll start of with a painting titled "Pallet Knife Fight." It's approximately 30 inches by 36 inches. The specific assignment was to paint an image with shallow depth. Initially the 2 figures stood alone, but illusion of a lack of depth just wasn't there. So I layered in concept drawings and the pencil to create a very specific sense of shallow space.
Rather than framing my paintings, I prefer to paint the edges as part of the image. To me this brings them into the environment, and one step closer to sculpture, rather than separating them as a simple 2 dimensional image.
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| Random Thought End View |
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| Random Thought Painting |
Next I took the idea of painting as sculpture a step farther with
"Random Thought." This is a stretched canvas painting on a wooden frame, but I completely abandoned the traditional rectangular format. The painting is a hexagonal tube about 3 feet long with a 16 inch diameter. In this case I was less concerned with the subject matter than I was with the experiment in form and placement. The painting is mounted so that the viewer can stand beneath it. It projects straight out of the wall at a height of about 7 feet. The intention was that when one person stood under it, the painting itself would suggest the thought bubble's used in comic books to other members of the audience.
"Random Thought." This is a stretched canvas painting on a wooden frame, but I completely abandoned the traditional rectangular format. The painting is a hexagonal tube about 3 feet long with a 16 inch diameter. In this case I was less concerned with the subject matter than I was with the experiment in form and placement. The painting is mounted so that the viewer can stand beneath it. It projects straight out of the wall at a height of about 7 feet. The intention was that when one person stood under it, the painting itself would suggest the thought bubble's used in comic books to other members of the audience.
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| Floating Shapes Painting - 4' x 9' |
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| Floating Shapes as it appeared in the Giles Gallery |
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| Floating Shapes Detail of mounting |
My third experiment in this idea of painting as sculpture resulted in my largest painting;
"Floating Shapes." This is actually 4 paintings mounted together measuring approximately 4 feet by 9 feet. The painting is mounted high, and away from the wall at an angle so that the audience has to look up at it. For the audience the act of having to look up at the piece should be slightly disorienting. The image itself is layer upon layer of random shapes, some solid, some translucent to show shapes behind them. Further more, the separate paintings with space between them, and the wall at a distance behind them creates a different relationship to the environment. It is my hope that the sum total of these elements should suggest a sense of floating for the viewer.
"Floating Shapes." This is actually 4 paintings mounted together measuring approximately 4 feet by 9 feet. The painting is mounted high, and away from the wall at an angle so that the audience has to look up at it. For the audience the act of having to look up at the piece should be slightly disorienting. The image itself is layer upon layer of random shapes, some solid, some translucent to show shapes behind them. Further more, the separate paintings with space between them, and the wall at a distance behind them creates a different relationship to the environment. It is my hope that the sum total of these elements should suggest a sense of floating for the viewer.
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| Jet Stream Found Object Assemblage and Stone |
"Jet Stream" in my mind is a very simple sculpture, but an effective one. In the same way that I was experimenting with making paintings into sculpture, this was an attempt to make sculpture into painting. In this case it's simply the idea that the wavy piece of scrap metal suggests a paint stroke.
This sculpture only uses 3 elements. The "Jet" is a found farm implement, the "Stream" was a long, badly distorted piece of scrap metal, and the "cloud" simply a rock used as a counter balance. The piece has a lot of physical movement. If one simply taps the Jet, the Stream acts as a spring and bobs up and down.
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| Rebirth in Stone Stone and Resin |
"Rebirth in Stone" is aptly named because this sculpture started out as a completely different sculpture. I started out with a very large rock that I carved into a fist. Never happy with the fist, I carved it back into a stone. I then sculpted the figure of a man laying in the cavity and cast that in clear resin.
"Rebirth in Stone" also appeared in a Juried show in April 2003, at the Giles Gallery.
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| Rebirth in Stone Detail |
"Rebirth in Stone" also appeared in a Juried show in April 2003, at the Giles Gallery.
"Bronze Destro" perhaps represents my most ambitious project.
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| Bronze Destro 33 pounds of hand cast bronze |
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| Bronze Destro 2/3rd's life sized bust |
Being an existing character automatically held the details to a higher standard. I didn't just have to get them to look esthetically pleasing, but to look accurate to the character. I took this sculpture through the entire process of bronze casting: clay sculpting, wax casting, pouring the actual bronze, and final clean up and polishing. The final sculpture is approximately 2/3rd's life sized, and
weighs 33 pounds.
weighs 33 pounds.
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| Hippo Found Object Assemblage |
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| Hippo Detail |
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| Extinction Event Right Side Detail |
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| Extinction Event 7 feet tall, 120 pounds |
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| Extinction Event Detail |
The result was a dinosaur
head that appeared to be exploding. That gave me the final idea. I welded a massive 5 foot nail, and mounted the 4 quarters of the bust to that as though it was destroying the unity of the bust. I think the result was visually impressive, and open to many interpretations.
My professors considered
"Red Ant" to be my most successful piece. It was in the Giles Gallery April 2002 Juried show were it was awarded best in show in the category of sculpture. It measures roughly 3 feet by 3 feet by 11/2 feet, and tips the scales at just over 60 pounds. Nothing here is fabricated, it's all welded, found object assemblage.
The image itself is that of a giant robotic ant head. I can't say that it's the image I set out to make. Part of the process of assemblage is to gather all the parts you can find and simply see what images are in them. This sculpture probably took me the better part of 2 weeks just laying out all the parts in various combinations to what looked right. Ultimately it came down to the angle of those eyes, and getting the mandibles right. Once I found those elements, the rest was just a matter of filling in the right parts.
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| Red Ant 3' x 3' x 1 1/2' |
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| Red Ant Left Side |
"Red Ant" to be my most successful piece. It was in the Giles Gallery April 2002 Juried show were it was awarded best in show in the category of sculpture. It measures roughly 3 feet by 3 feet by 11/2 feet, and tips the scales at just over 60 pounds. Nothing here is fabricated, it's all welded, found object assemblage.
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| Red Ant Face Detail |
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| Red Ant Right Side |
Nothing exists in a vacuum.
All that comes before informs all that comes after.
The connections are not always obvious, and rarely direct, but they are there from a certain point of view. By exploring those connections I hope to not only help others discover their own connections, but in turn to better understand my own.
