Tag: sculpture

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Jean Dubuffet

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Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet (1901 -1985) was a French painter and sculptor.Born in Le Havre, France, the artist did not dedicate himself to his art practice until age 41, having been dismissed from the French meteorological corps and subsequently working as a wine merchant.Dubuffet is perhaps best known for founding the art movement Art Brut (Raw Art), and for the collection of works — Collection de l’art brut — that this movement spawned.Dubuffet looked to the margins of the everyday—the art of prisoners, psychics, the uneducated, and the institutionalized—to liberate his own creativity, coining the term “Art Brut” as a reflection of the creative possibilities outside the conventions of the day.

Dubuffet may be best known for his large-scale sculptures, which resemble masses of white organic forms sharply outlined in black.This artistic period was full of creative triumphs for the artist, who began work on his famed “Hourloupe” cycle, which comprises paintings, drawings, panels, and sculptural and architectural installations featuring undulating black lines and shapes atop white sculptural forms.More of Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet‘s unique works can be found at https://www.wikiart.org/en/jean-dubuffet and  https://www.artnews.com/feature/jean-dubuffet-who-is-he-famous-works-1234569877.

 

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Constantin Brâncuși

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Constantin Brâncuși (1876 – 1957) was a Romanian-French sculptor, painter and photographer who made his career in France.Considered a pioneer of modernism, Brâncuși is  one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th-century,  often called the patriarch of modern sculpture.Born in a family of poor peasants, Brâncuși showed early talent for carving objects out of wood. Brancusi was trained as a sculptor in Romania before moving to Paris in 1904. There he studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and exhibited at the Salon d’Automne.

Brâncuși quickly became accepted as a member of the Paris avant-garde, as his sculptures departed from the 19th century Western trend toward naturalism and eroticism, and were based instead on non-Western and so-called ‘primitive’ sculpture.His sculptures were of two distinct types: elegant, abstract marble or bronze forms, such as the ‘bird’ sculptures based on a Romanian legend, and rougher carvings made of wood, like his series of ‘endless columns’.Brâncuși was also known for paying special attention to the bases on which his sculptures were displayed, believing that the pedestal was part of the sculpture itself. The artist aimed to depict in his sculpture “not the outer form but the idea, the essence of things”.

Though his art is regarded as abstract by many, he insisted that it was representational and disclosed a fundamental, often concealed, reality.

 

More of Constantin Brâncuși’s marvelous sculptures can be found at https://www.theartstory.org/artist/brancusi-constantin/ and https://www.wikiart.org/en/constantin-brancusi.

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Victor Ekpuk

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Victor Ekpuk is an internationally-renowned Nigerian-American artist based in Washington, D.C.His paintings, drawings, and sculptures reflect indigenous African philosophies of the Nsibidi and Uli art forms.Ekpuk received his Bachelor of Fine Art degree (BFA), Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, Nigeria, where he first explored the aesthetic philosophies of Nsibidi (a system of symbols or proto-writing developed by the Ekpe secret society that traversed the southeastern part of Nigeria).His knowledge of nsibidi dates back to his childhood through his grandfather, but it wasn’t until he was an art student that he became fascinated with this form of writing.This led to his adaptation, modification and (re)invention of nsibidi into his own signature “script”, which he humorously describes as his “scribblings”.Ekpuk’s artwork is characterized by intricate, large-scale compositions that merge African writing, knowledge and aesthetics with his own artistic expression.The artist invites us to (re)examine simplistic definitions of calligraphy, the boundaries between architecture, sculpture and script, and the distinctions between writing, graphic writing and art.More of Victor Ekpuk‘s unique sculptured writing forms can be found at https://www.victorekpuk.com/.

 

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Stéphanie Kilgast

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Stéphanie Kilgast is a contemporary French artist known for her intricately detailed works using discarded materials, trash, and, recently books.Born in 1985 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, the artist currently resides in Vannes, France.Her recent pieces explore incredible biodiversity utilizing books as her canvas.She constructs delicate mushrooms, blooming flowers, and colorful coral in painstakingly detailed miniature environments as a vivid reminder of the impact humans have on the environment and the tenacity of nature.Millions of titles are published each year in the U.S. alone, meaning billions of individual copies—a vast number of which eventually end up in landfills.Kilgast draws attention to these discarded objects by giving vintage editions new life.Inspired by natural forms, Stéphanie Kilgast’s artwork is an ode to nature and its current biodiversity.“With my choice of bold and vibrant colors, I offer a cheerful post-apocalyptic world,” the artist shares.“While I talk about a heavy subject, the disastrous impact of human activities, I also wish that people leave my work with a feeling of happiness and hope, and keep fighting.”More of Stéphanie Kilgast’s delightful creations can be found at https://www.stephaniekilgast.com/.

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Eva Jospin

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Eva Jospin is a French artist known for her elaborate cardboard sculptures.Born in Paris, Jospin graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des BeauxArts de Paris.The artist cuts and gules cardboard to craft dense, multi-layered and highly detailed forests with stunning depth of field.For more than a decade, Jospin has explored the possibilities of the corrugated material, layering it to create solid pieces that can be carved to reveal detailed landscapes and interiors.Using cardboard, Jospin crafts detailed architectural sculptures and immersive sets that explore the connection between the natural and built environments.Within her works, gothic towers, arches, and columns blend with cardboard-created geological formations, caves, and vines. Jospin’s sculptures often aim to explore the relationship between nature and culture while challenging our perceptions of materiality.They are displayed in a way that invites the viewer to give them a closer inspection, either by passing through them or by getting close enough to be able to fully appreciate the artist’s craftsmanship.More of Eva Jospin‘s architectural structures can be found at https://www.artsy.net/artist/eva-jospin and https://www.galleriacontinua.com/artists/eva-jospin-320.

 

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Clark Sorensen

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Clark Sorensen has utilized his  BFA in Sculpture from the University of Utah to craft marvelous sculptures of a unique nature.After years of working in costume design, illustration, and computer animation, Sorensen could not resist the “call of nature.”In 2002, Sorensen realized the potential of the porcelain pissoir and turned the mundane task of using the men’s room into a luxuriously satisfying experience by crafting whimsical urinal and sink sculptures for the powder room.His work is a fusion of function and beauty, humor and grace, as his designs are unique, one-of-a-kind creations.And though they look like shiny ceramic sculptures that belong in galleries, they are totally functional for private or commercial use and many men around the world can confirm.“My pieces echo the classic conflicts between masculine and feminine, good and evil, soiled and chaste,” Sorensen shares.“My work reflects my interest in combining beauty with function and exploiting the discord between opposing elements in life and in art. The contradiction of taking an unsightly urinal and transforming it into a graceful object like a flower or shell is a potent combination.”

More of Clark Sorensen’s delightful sculptures can be found at http://clarkmade.com/.

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Randall Rosenthal

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Randall Rosenthal (1947- New York, NY) is a sculptor known for turning single blocks of wood into intricately detailed sculptures of ordinary objects. The artist’s collection of work boasts mind-boggling creations that are not only diligently carved and thoroughly painted, but also presented in visually realistic compositions.
He starts with masses of hardwood, and begins the creative process with blade routers, chain saws and angle grinders.The finer work is done with as many as 50 hand tools.Carved from a single block of pine, Rosenthal uses a reductive process, with no adhesives, to create these astonishingly realistic works.The works are then finished using acrylic and ink.His subjects have ranged from magazines to notepads to envelopes and boxes of money.Due to the excellent paint job and perfect sculpting, most of us are completely fooled by his optical illusions.“I get a little frenzied in the beginning,” the artist shares. “I can see it in my head and want to make it appear in real life.”

More of Randall Rosenthal‘s amazing sculptures can be found at http://www.randallrosenthal.com/. 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Kiko Miyares

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Artist Kiko Miyares carves and colors stretched, distorted sculptures of the human figure.Miyares was born on the April 27 in 1977 in Llanes, in the Asturian Province in Spain.After his studies at the Faculty of Beaux Arts at the ‘Universidad Publica del Païs Vasco’ he started exhibiting his work in Bilbao.The Spanish sculptor often focuses on the head and shoulders of his subjects, with each bust combining realistic renderings of facial feature with a dramatically narrowed shape that makes the works appear to be squeezed or warped.In some works, elements of the elongated sculptures are fractured, creating surreal doubling of torsos, heads, and arms.Miyares often shows his busts in groups, to create striking and perception-altering vignettes.Although the skewed works are best viewed in the round, each photographed angle provides a new and fascinating look into the the artist’s boundary-pushing portraits.More of Kiko Miyares amazing works can be found at http://www.kikomiyares.es/ and https://www.instagram.com/kikomiyares/.

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Shary Boyle

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Sculpture can be so many things. So many different shapes. Colors. Meanings.Canadian artist Shary Boyle works across diverse media, including sculpture, drawing, installation and performance.Highly crafted and deeply imaginative, her practice is activated through collaboration and mentorship.While she works in multiple mediums, Boyle is best known for her porcelain figurines.Boyle’s work considers the social history of figurines, spiritual energy mythologies, and folk art forms to create a symbolic diversity uniquely her own.At first look you wonder what it is about these creations that makes you want to look closer.Boyle’s fantastical and frightening characters are indeterminately human and animal, male and female, and each one sends out a unique vibration that makes you appreciate her diversity.More of Shary Boyle‘s wonderfully unique art can be found at https://www.sharyboyle.com/.

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Debra Bernier

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Debra Bernier is an extraordinary artist from Victoria, Canada.She uses natural materials, mostly driftwood, shells, and clay, to create amazing sculptures.These intricate pieces represent the spirits of nature as human fusing together with the natural material.“When I work with driftwood, I never start with a blank canvas,” the artist explains.“Each piece of driftwood is already a sculpture, created by the caresses of the waves and wind.Bernier’s talent lies in using the natural curves and depths of her driftwood to connect with that which most sacred in the world – children, animals, nature.  “The wood tells a story and I try to think of its journey as I hold it in my hand.“I extend or shorten the curves and contours that already exist into familiar shapes of animals or peoples’ faces.”More of Debra Bernier‘s amazing sculptures can be found at https://www.etsy.com/market/debra_bernier and https://www.instagram.com/shapingspirit/.

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Tony Cragg

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Tony Cragg is a British sculptor best known for his sculptures which use diverse materials ranging from found objects to the more traditional bronze, wood, and glass.Cragg was born in Liverpool and spent two years working as a lab technician before attending the Gloucestershire College of Art and Design and the Royal College of Art in London.Cragg incorporated materials such as pieces of plastic, detritus from construction sites, and household wares into his sculptures, creating flat mosaics and three-dimensional works with serrated and stacked elements.In the early 1980s Cragg gradually moved away from installation art and began to examine more closely the individual objects used as parts of his larger constellations.This was the beginning of his engagement and experimentation with the properties and possibilities of a wide range of more permanent materials in the form of wood, plaster, stone, fiberglass, Kevlar, stainless steel, cast iron and bronze.Craggs’ sculptures embody a frozen moment of movement, resulting in swirling abstractions.His work investigates the possibilities of manipulating every day, familiar containers and the ways in which they can morph into and around one another in space.

More of Tony Cragg‘s wonderful sculptures can be found at https://www.galerieklueser.com/en/artists/tony-cragg/ and http://www.artnet.com/artists/tony-cragg/.

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Noah Deledda

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Noah Deledda is an American can sculptor and artist who transforms everyday aluminum cans into works of art using nothing but his fingertips.Despite the absence of a formal art education, Deledda gained notoriety in the 1990s, first as a graffiti artist, and then as a graphic design artist.

Deledda carefully presses and creases intricate geometric patterns into the surface of plain cylindrical cans using carefully placed pressure from his fingers and the edge of his nails.

His blank canvas begins with a simple beverage purchase; it is stripped of its painted exterior using a special acid wash, leaving a shiny silver face for his sculptures.Denting, creasing and crushing is then carried out by hand; a process that is repeated and refined into many different forms.“Through sculpture I try to create something unique out of an ordinary object. In this case, a common disposable object,” the artist explains.“The technique itself also embodies this theme of elevation by implementing the incidental gestures of disposal, the ‘scratch, dent and crease.’ Through artistic principles these actions are re-imagined.” More of Noah Deledda‘s creative art can be found at https://www.noahdeledda.com/. 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Gil Bruvel

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Gil Bruvel is a visionary artist, capable of translating complex ideas and fleeting impressions into stunning works of art.

His art emerges from a deep contemplation of images, emotions, and sensations, which he refines continually before he casts them into material form.

Gil Bruvel was born in Australia, but raised in the South of France.

His father, a cabinetmaker by profession, taught him furniture design and wood sculpting. Once he gained these skills, he began his studies at an art restoration workshop in Chateaurenard, France, where he learned the techniques of old and modern masters.

It was here that he got a chance to enhance his knowledge about wood and within no time was crafting portraits in wood.

Bruvel’s work displays a mastery of technique and high-level craftsmanship.

His sculptures in bronze, wood, and stainless steel, as well as his functional furniture and mixed media, all reflect a well-defined move towards three-dimensional representation.

A look at Bruvel’s works makes it evident that this visionary artist is certainly capable of transforming his unique ideas into stunning works of art.

More of Gil Bruvel‘s marvelously creative woodworks can be found at https://www.bruvel.com/ and https://chloefinearts.com/artist/gil-bruvel.

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Alisa Lariushkina

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Russian artist Alisa Lariushkina molds countless coiled ribbons and small twists from air-dry clay to create idyllic scenes brimming with color and texture.

Based in Vilnius, Lithuania, Lariushkina erases the line between painting and sculpture with her mesmerizing polymer clay art.

Instead of paints, this Lithuania-based artist uses these versatile modelling medium to draw the images on a flat canvas.

Thus, she creates tactile paintings that you can both see and feel.

She renders scenic landscapes by sculpting pieces of clay into expressive, swirling shapes that resemble lines.

The individual pieces of clay that make up each artwork are by formed by hand and glued together.

Describing her work, Lariushkina says, “I make figures and framed landscapes of clay. I developed my own style in 2015, using various materials for sculpting: air-dry clay, paper clay, acrylic paints, crystals, and beads.”

“…I can tell you that I came to [clay sculpting] quite spontaneously…Since then, I improved the technology, found the best materials, and made my products more durable and of better quality.”

More of Alisa Lariushkina’s delightful sculptures can be found at https://www.instagram.com/liskaflower and at https://mymodernmet.com/alisa-lariushkina-polymer-clay-art/.

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Pablo Reinoso

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Pablo Reinoso is a multidisciplinary artist known for his sculptures and public installations. Born in Buenos Aires and living in Paris since 1978,  Reinoso combines surrealistic concepts with furniture design to create immersive structures using wood, stone, and metal.His passion for the arts developed at a young age, and he studied architecture at the University of Buenos Aires before fleeing to Paris in 1978 to escape the political upheaval in Argentina.The artist creates his artwork through different series where he crosses, grinds up, rummages through, and explores different worlds and materials.Having studied architecture but being multifaceted, curious, and often self-taught, Reinoso has always straddled disciplines (sculpture, photography, architecture, design).A constant feature in his work is his penchant for endlessly questioning, subverting, using materials or objects against their grain, bringing opposites together, and playing with the limits of impossibility. “The extravagance of spirals and twists in my sculptures has led some critics to describe my art as “baroque,” but in truth, I always create my pieces with minimalism in mind.,” Reinoso says.“Though winding, the lines are always clean and distinct, and monochromatic tones have permeated my collections across the years.”More of Pablo Reinoso‘s wonderful designs can be found at https://www.pabloreinoso.com/.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art — Auguste Rodin

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François Auguste René Rodin (1840 – 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture.

The Old Courtesan (La Belle qui fut heaulmière)

 

Rodin endured a somewhat tumultuous life in his early years that nearly discouraged him from becoming an artist.

The Three Shades

 

He wanted to attend the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in his teens, but was denied three times. He worked for decades as a craftsman, but completely abandoned his pursuit to be an artist after the death of his sister in 1862.

The Kiss

 

Rodin joined a Catholic order that same year, but it was Saint Peter Julian Eymard who noticed Rodin’s incredible talent and encouraged him to resume his life as a sculptor.

The Thinker

 

 

A trip to Italy in 1875 sparked his creativity after having studied the sculptures of Donatello and Michelangelo.

Young Girl with Roses on Her Hat

 

After this, Rodin was inspired to create a number of masterful pieces of sculpture that are considered to this day to be among the greatest works in history.

Monument to Balzac

 

Rodin stripped away many of the narrative references to classical myth that were still attached to academic sculpture in the late-19th century and placed a new stress on the dignity of simple human moments.

Burghers of Calais

 

Rodin was a naturalist, less concerned with monumental expression than with character and emotion.

Madame X (Countess Anna-Elizabeth de Noailles)

 

He dedicated most of the last 40 years of his life to working on an expanse of sculptures that formed what Rodin titled The Gates of Hell.

The Gates of Hell

 

The pieces associated with this work are considered to be Rodin’s greatest accomplishments.

More of Auguste Rodin’s sculptures can be found at https://www.musee-rodin.fr. , https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rodn/hd_rodn.htm and https://www.artst.org/rodin-sculptures/.

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Kip Omolade

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Kip Omolade is celebrated for his brightly colored oil paintings of humanoid faces that explore themes such as immortality, social performance, and the human psyche.Born in Harlem, New York, Omolade began his art career as a graffiti artist while interning at Marvel Comics and The Center for African Art.

He continued his studies at The Art Students League of New York and earned a BFA at the School of Visual Arts.The paintings in his different series examine contemporary beauty standards and the notion that people present a masked version of themselves to the world.

The artist’s process involves creating a mold and cast of a model’s face, and producing a resin version of the cast, to which a layer of chrome is then added.The final sculpture, which is adorned with false eyelashes, is then used as the model for Omolade’s dazzling paintings.

Omolade explains the work by saying, “(For instance) My Diovadiova Chrome portraits historically connect to ancient, realistic African sculptures such as Benin ivory masks and Ife bronze heads.“The oil paintings are psychological studies that investigate immortality, the universal masks we all wear and contemporary notions of beauty and luxury.”More of Kip Omolade’s remarkable art can be found at https://www.kipomolade.com/.

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Judith Scott

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Judith Scott (1943-2005), a fraternal twin, suffered from Down Syndrome. She was also deaf, a condition that was misdiagnosed as mental retardation until she was an adult.In 1987, Judith was enrolled at the Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, California which supports people with developmental disabilities. There, Judith discovered her passion and talent for abstract fiber art and she was able to communicate in a new form.For the next eighteen years of her life, Scott created sculptures using yarn, twine, and strips of fabric, to wrap and knot around an array of mundane objects she discovered around her.Using the materials at hand, Judith spontaneously invented her own unique and radically different form of artistic expression, sculpting with an unprecedented zeal and concentration.Taking whatever objects she found, regardless of ownership, she would wrap them in carefully selected colored yarns to create diverse sculptures of many different shapes.Scott’s vivid and enigmatic sculptures, which evolved in shape and material throughout her career, expressed her imagination in ways she could not through speech.More of Judith Scott’s remarkable work can be found at https://www.wikiart.org/en/judith-scott.

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Guy Clement Cohen

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Guy Clement Cohen was born in Egypt in 1951 to a French Jewish Father (whose own father was a rabbi) and an Italian mother.

As a university student he graduated in Electrical Engineering.

One of his favorite hang-outs in the heart of Paris were Les Halles where the Centre George Pompidou Museum was created.

He developed some of the earliest Computer-Aided Art and several of his pieces were shown at the opening of the Museum in the early 70’s.

Years later, after a successful career in cutting-edge technology and product design, the engineer with the soul of an artist decided to dedicate himself to his lifetime passion and became a sculptor.In each sculpture, Cohen reveals elements of the creation and oneness.He is an intuitive artist and brings to his art the multi-cultural and multinational flair and experiences to which he has been exposed all his life.

“I am able to remove all undesirable thoughts and tendencies and I project into my sculptures a dimension of my senses and feelings in a very organic way that imbues my art with a remarkable wisdom, wholeness, peace and fulfillment, the sculptor says.

More of Guy Clement Cohen’s works can be found at http://guyclementcohen.com/.

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Georgie Seccull

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Australian sculptor and installation artist Georgie Seccull creates large-scale stainless steel sculptures of animals and other creatures seemingly locked in motion.

Her work explores our individual and collective perceptions of polarities in existence, and how these observations inform our reality.Comprised of numerous pieces cut from metal sheets, the materials lend themselves to organic forms like feathers, scales, wings, or the armaments of crustaceans.Working meticulously by hand, Seccull transcends hard heavy steel into fluid expressions of life force, each piece an exploration into the delicate aspects of the natural world through paradox in subject matter and use of materials.Seccull’s work scales up dramatically in her installation practice where she’s filled entire rooms and atriums with suspended pieces.

““My process is much the same. I begin with a thousand pieces scattered on the ground, then working almost like a jigsaw puzzle, I pick them up one by one and allow each piece to come together organically and dictate the outcome,” the artist shares in a statement.

More of Georgie Seccull‘s amazing sculptures can be found at https://georgieseccull.com/. and https://www.instagram.com/georgieseccull/.

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Doug Adams

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Award winning recycled Sculptured Bell artist Doug Adams grew up in Fielding, Utah on a small Appaloosa horse ranch & farm.

After graduating from high school, Doug served his country in the military’s branch of Utah National Guard for five years.

 

Upon his return from basic training & advanced training as a tank mechanic, he found employment constructing a large steel mill located nearby & a year later he began his 30 year career in the steel industry.

Doug created his first bell using a recycled cylinder in the early 80’s but it wasn’t until he met his wife Dianne that they started creating one of a kind sculptured bells using many of the same techniques Doug became so familiar with in the steel industry.

Old tools, well worn machinery, old car parts are all sculptures in the making for Doug’s artistic endeavors.

His wife Dianne creates one of a kind glass in her art studio for each sculpture that’s created.

Each unique bell stand is designed for its respective bell and given Doug’s trademark distressed patina.

Each piece is carefully made to stand the test of time to be enjoyed by generations to come, both for indoor and outdoor settings.

More of Doug Adams  amazing bells can be found at http://www.dougadamsbells.com/.

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Sergio Bustamante

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Sergio Bustamante is a Mexican sculptor best known for his depictions of animals and inventive humanoid creatures.Born in 1942 in Sinaloa, Mexico, he went on to study architecture at the University of Guadajara, leaving before he finished his degree in order to focus on craftmaking and fine art.Bustamante infuses every one of his creations with such life and love and a limitless passion for both, that there’s no question that only someone very much connected to his ancestors, to his culture, to the cosmos and to the unknown could be responsible for such wild, wondrous and beautiful creations.Working in papier maché, wood, bronze, and ceramic, Bustamante’s sculptures are often painted or glazed, allowing him to bring even greater heights of imagination and surrealism to his creatures.One of the more compelling forms he continues to explore is his bronze and ceramic sculptures.Often cast of the same strange and surreal creatures who inhabit his paintings (fish-headed humans, mystical figures draped in heavy dresses, and plenty of half-moons and half-suns), Bustamante has grown to love his bronzes and ceramics more and more.“Colors are more poetic,” he says, “but the bronzes and ceramics are more abstract.” Many of Bustamante’s works are as magical as they are known.“Magic is something in your mind, something you help to create,” emphasizes Bustamante, who uses colors and design the way a poet uses words.

“The magic in some of my things is because you chose to show these worlds, shapes, these atmospheres that maybe other people haven’t imagined. I try to impact people and seduce them. It’s like trying to make them love.” More of Sergio Bustamante‘s whimsical art can be found at https://www.coleccionsergiobustamante.com.mx/ and the Meyer East Gallery.

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Xavier Puente Vilardell

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Brussels-based sculptor Xavier Puente Vilardell turns blocks of wood into twisting, curled objects that look more like scrolls of paper or pieces of fabric than lumber.Many of these eye-catching sculptural forms resemble architectural structures and other natural forms shaped by wind, rain, and the sea’s turbulent waves.Vilardell’s series of wood pine sculptures are meticulously carved with unique, elegant features.The artist uses pinewood, a malleable material that enables him to make precise and curved structural forms.To create his sculptures, Vilardell uses traditional cutting tools and crafts each piece by hand.His skill and patience enable him to turn the blocks of wood into sculpted forms that twist in every direction, almost appearing to defy gravity.Vilardell says, “Working with wood requires a deep respect for the living being that is necessary to understand its inner nature and characteristics that give a certain personality.”More of Xavier Puente Vilardell‘s skillful sculptures can be found at https://www.xavipuente.com/.

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Lorenzo Quinn

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Contemporary Italian artist Lorenzo Quinn is a leading figurative sculptor whose work is inspired by such masters as Michelangelo and Rodin.

His monumental public art and smaller, more intimate pieces transmit his passion for eternal values and authentic emotions.

Quinn is best known for expressive recreations of human hands.“I wanted to sculpt what is considered the hardest and most technically challenging part of the human body’, he asserts. ‘The hand holds so much power – the power to love, to hate, to create, to destroy.” Quinn’s creative ideas spark quickly into life: ‘The inspiration comes within a millisecond’, he says, as he is driven to sculpt by observing life’s everyday energy.Yet a finished project takes months to realize, and it has to carry clear meaning. Quinn’s work appears in many private collections throughout the world and has been exhibited internationally during the past 20 years. 

More of Lorenzo Quinn’s sculptures can be found at https://www.lorenzoquinn.com/.

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery (midweek) — Woodrow Nash

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Born in the late 40’s in Akron, Ohio, Woodrow Nash is the product of sanctified churches, 1950’s television images, and black inner city neighborhood schools run by predominantly white middle-class educators.

Nash’s consuming passion to elevate the human spirit takes the form of sculptures, building a sense of mystery and charisma into each piece. 

Through his work, Nash achieves his goal of integrating expression, complex symbolism and sophisticated aesthetics to yield striking embodiments of the human soul and sensuality.Examining the contemporary male and female physique, he explores the body’s natural form and mythology.Incorporating various styles and techniques utilizing stoneware, earthenware, terracotta or porcelain, Nash’s work is fired electronically, pit fired or via a “raku” effect – creating an “African Nouveau” trademark that’s solely his own.While the images are African, in general, the concept is 15th century Benin with the graceful, slender proportions and long, undulating lines of 18th century Art Nouveau.More of Woodrow Nash’s colorful sculptures can be found at https://woodrownashstudios.com/. 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Wenqin Chen

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Wenqin Chen studied at the Art & Design School of Fuzhou University 1995-1999.

 Since 2000’s, Chen has used Chinese calligraphy, sculpture and installation to explore the relationship between life, art and their diversity.

The being of life, the wonder of the human experience, and tensions in our living environment are intrinsic to and evident in his work.

As a source of inspiration and research, Chen studied extensively the human body, various scientific journals and statements, real life examples, and countless images.Working in mostly stainless steel, Chen’s sculpting is a process of comprehending and elaborating on the vastness of life.

“Everything has life, life is everywhere,” is the truth he consistently explores in his work.He  has successfully combined his art and pursuit of academia with ancient Chinese culture and contemporary western art.

More of Wenqin Chen‘s work can be found at http://wenqinchen.com/.

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Kazuhito Takadoi

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Artist Kazuhito Takadoi uses natural materials combined with traditional Japanese art supplies like sumi ink and washi paper to make delicate sculptural works that tread between two and three dimensions.

Inspired by the rich woodland surrounding his birthplace of Nagoya, Japan, nature is both Takadoi’s inspiration and the source of him material. There are no added colors: everything is natural, simply dried then woven, stitched, or tied.Takadoi cultivates and then gathers grass, leaves, and twigs from his garden to form the meticulous structures that comprise his dimensional creations.He has also developed the embroidery process to include pure white Japanese book binding threads as a material.

Though these organic findings are secured in place through weaving and stitching, they continue to evolve as they dry and mature, changing in flexibility and color.

More of Kazuhito Takadoi’s marvelous creations can be found at http://www.kazuhitotakadoi.com.

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Rob Mulholland

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Rob Mulholland is a sculptor and environmental artist based in the United Kingdom who exhibits throughout the U.K and world-wide.Mullholland explores the complex relationship between humans and the natural world.Utilizing a wide variety of forms and materials, his sculpture installations interact with their surroundings.He incorporates mirrored surfaces in his sculptures to reflect the given environment and alter the viewers perception of the space.The reflection is purposely distorted inviting the viewer to question their individual relationship with their surroundings.As leaves change colors and fall, clouds and storms pass by, daylight waxes and wanes, and people walk by, these stationary figures shimmer and change, creating a reflection of the mood around them.They can be eerie, ghostly, magical, and whimsical by turns.More of Rob Mulholland‘s remarkable visions can be found at http://robmulholland.org/.

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Peter Jansen

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Peter Jansen (1956) studied Physics and Philosophy at the university.For a number of years he worked as a guide, accompanying groups on survival and canoe trips, after which he dedicated his live entirely to the arts.Based on his ideas on transposition and movement the artist uses shapes of the human body to create energetic spaces.In his earlier works he focused on open spaces, created almost free of matter and weight.In his recent sculptures he captures sequences of human movements in space and time, in a single frame.

More of Peter Jansen‘s amazing sculptures can be found across the Internet.

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Michelangelo

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Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564) was a sculptor, painter and architect widely considered to be one of the greatest artists of all time.Tomb of Pope Julius II                   

As a young boy, Michelangelo was sent to Florence to study grammar under the Humanist Francesco da Urbino. However, he showed no interest in his schooling, preferring to copy paintings from churches and seek the company of other painters.

Battle of the Centaurs

At 13, he persuaded his father to allow him to leave grammar school and become an apprentice to the artist Domenico Ghirlandaio, one of the most successful fresco painters in Florence.

Angel

Michelangelo spent only a year at the workshop the moved into the palace of Florentine ruler Lorenzo the Magnificent, of the powerful Medici family, to study classical sculpture in the Medici gardens.

The Rebellious Slaves

At the age of 22, Michelangelo moved to Rome and sold his first important work: the Bacchus and another Cupid, now lost.

Bacchus

 He was only 24 when he finished sculpting the Pieta for the French cardinal Jean de Billheres. Michelangelo went to the marble quarry and selected the marble for this exquisite piece himself.

Pieta

At age of 27 Michelangelo returned to Florence, which had become a republic, and received an order from the local authorities to sculpt a colossal marble statue of  David. 

David

In 1508, when Michelangelo was 28, Pope Julius decided to decorate his uncle’s chapel  (called the Sistine, after Pope Sixtus IV) and ordered Michelangelo to fill the ceiling with frescoes.  He protested that he is no painter but the Pope insisted and Michelangelo began to work alone and in great discomfort. He finished the Sistine Chapel frescoes in 1512.

Sistine Chapel

His amazing work throughout his long life can be found on many sites on the Internet, especially https://www.michelangelo.org/..

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Penny Hardy

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Sculptor Penny Hardy combines discarded metal items to create three-dimensional figures based on her body’s own dimensions.

Although the physique has the same core reference, each sculpture is a unique creation based on the varied assortment of rusted gears, bolts, and screws used in its composition.

In display, the works are either presented alone or in pairs of two, and express fundamental emotions through their relationship to the environment or each other.

By using discarded man-made metal items, which have been so skillfully made and used to create their own mechanical energy, she hopes to extend their life in another form,

re-use that energy for a different purpose, and exchange their function to create a new entity.

More of Penny Hardy‘s sculptures can be found at http://www.pennyhardysculpture.com/.

I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.

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~Michelangelo

The elections are over, candidates came and some went, everyone believing they know what’s best for my/our community, our district, our state. One falls and the other takes up the march. In the end, the stalks of corn whistle and whine and sing the song of tomorrow.

I just started watching “The Agony and the Ecstasy” about Michelangelo. It begins by covering his amazing sculptures such at St. Matthew, the tomb of Juliano, and the Medici tombs, including the tomb of Lorenzo. He was 24 when he carved the magnificent Pietà of St. Peters, and 26 when he started to carve famous statue of David.

And he was 33 when he started painting the Sistine Chapel. That huge, vast, empty ceiling. 

33. What were you doing when you were 33? 

I was working in downtown Chicago and had been married for three years and had a two-year-old when I was 33. The little painting I did was more a passing fancy, and the writing I did would not explode in earnest until ten years later.

Some people are just gifted. Some people are just magic. Some people have something we will never have. 

I don’t think the competition back in 1508 was as extreme as it is these days. There was no Internet, no Facebook or no blogs. No telephones, no printing presses, no TV or Xeroxes. Oh, I’m sure there were many sculptors back then. Sculptors and painters. But to have your work noticed and remembered and studied and worshipped — that’s a totally different story.

I have no idea how to sculpt anything, no less chisel a man out of marble. I may paint my pithy version of an alien landscape, but I have no idea how to paint people and ceilings and landscapes.

He did.

He knew how to create art from blocks of stone and angels from paint at the same time people lived with thatched roofs and bathed once a year.

When you stop and take a look at the history of art — really take a look at how such marvelous creations were created in such sparse and simple times — you cannot help be be amazed. 

You don’t have to be “into” the arts to appreciate the talent and stories that echo through the hallways of time. A calling was all that was needed; a calling to an artist who had the talent, the patience, and the dream of making something bigger than themselves. 

You may not have the fame or endurance of the masters of old, but you do have the talent and the inspiration. Throw yourself into your art, and let it flow through you and onto your medium.

Don’t compare yourself to artists like Michelangelo di Ludovico Buonarroti Simoni or Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn or Marc Zakharovich Chagall. You are your own magic, your own muse. You hear music others can’t hear. Follow that calling. 

And take a look at some of the artists of the past. Learn about their art, their history, their passions.

Maybe you will see yourself reflected in their creativity.

Sunday Evening Art Gallery on Friday — Guy Laramee

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Montreal-based artist Guy Laramée created sculptural works, highlighting his evolving ability to excavate mountainous landscapes, cavernous hollows, and sloping watersheds from the dense pages of repurposed books.

One of his favorite mediums are bound stacks of old dictionaries and encyclopedias which he carves using a method of sandblasting to which he later applies oil paints, inks, pigments and dry pastels, crayon, adhesives, and beeswax.

When photographed up close the works appear almost realistic, as if the viewer is looking at aerial or satellite topographies of Earth

Among his sculptural works are two incredible series of carved book landscapes and structures entitled Biblios and The Great Wall, where the dense pages of old books are excavated to reveal serene mountains, plateaus, and ancient structures.

Laramee says, “I carve landscapes out of books and I paint Romntic landscapes. Mountains of disused knowledge return to what they really are: mountains.

They erode a bit more and they become hills. Then they flatten and become fields where apparently nothing is happening.  Piles of obsolete encyclopedias return to that which does not need to say anything, that which simply IS.”

More of Guy Laramée’s work can be found at http://www.guylaramee.com 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Kris Kuski

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Born March 2nd 1973,  Kris Kuski spent his youth in rural seclusion and isolation along with a blue-collar working mother, two much older brothers and absent father.Open country, sparse trees, and later alcoholic stepfathers, perhaps paved the way for an individual saturated in imagination and introversion.

His fascination with the unusual lent to his macabre art later in life. The grotesque to him as it seemed, was beauty.

 His work shows the corrupt and demoralized fall of modern-day society, a place where new beginnings, new wars, new philosophies, and new endings all exist.

Through his intricate 3-D sculptural work, we see both the beautiful and dark side of our minds.

Kris’s work is intricate, fascinating, and incredibly mesmerizing. Look close, look often.

More of Kris Kuski‘s work can be found at http://www.kuksi.com/ 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery Blog — Donatello

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Italian sculptor Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi (c. 1386 -1466) , better known as Donatello, was the greatest Florentine sculptor before Michelangelo, and was the most influential individual artist of the 15th century in Italy.

He was one of the forerunners of Florentine Art, which also paved way for the age of Renaissance Art.

Donatello drew heavily from reality for inspiration in his sculptures, accurately showing suffering, joy and sorrow in his figures’ faces and body positions.

His fascination with many styles of ancient art and his ability to blend classical and medieval styles with his own new techniques led to hundreds of unique pieces in marble, wood, bronze, clay, stucco and wax.

Donatello’s legacy as the most accomplished sculptor of the early Renaissance is well deserved. With his work he ushered in an era where artists could feel free to interpret the emotion inherent in their subject matter without being tied to outdated legends.

More of Donatello’s history and works can be found at http://www.donatello.net/

Sunday Evening Art Gallery Blog — Michael Parkes

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Born in 1944, Michael Parkes studied graphic art and painting at the University of Kansas, and then traveled for 3 years through Asia and Europe.

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Parkes is both a uniquely talented painter and master of the art of original stone lithography.

He is a painter, sculptor, and stone lithographer.

But more so he has been called the world’s leading Magical Realist.

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It has been said of Parkes, “His work evokes a mysterious atmosphere, which can often only be deciphered with the help of ancient mythology and eastern philosophy.”

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More of Michael Parkes‘ striking work — sculpture, painting and lithographs — can be found at Michael Parkes.

Atmosphere, Art, and the Biltmore — Part 2

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Art

Who doesn’t enjoy looking at the world through others eyes?

Who doesn’t have a painting of flowers or a scenery print or a portrait hanging on their wall?

Who hasn’t collected a glass vase or pottery mug or bronze sun to hang on their porch?

Art is created in a broad stroke with largest paint brush imagineable. It’s the appreciation of another’s work enough to research it, talk about it, collect it, share it. It depends on one’s perspective of life. One sees a sea of flowers; another a gateway of pain. One sees squiggles; another, divinity.

It’s all relative — it’s all Art.

Don’t compare what you see in an artist’s dream with what others see. If you’d like, read the artist’s explanation, then feel it, interpret it as you will. As with many other virtues, Art is an ideal all men strive for but often misunderstand. It is an expression of you but a reflection of others.

Some incredible interpretations found on my journey through North Carolina:

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Next:  the Biltmore

Sunday Evening Art Gallery Blog — Jennifer Maestre

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A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere  ~~ Joyce A. Myers

Sculpture artist Jennifer Maestre, born 1959 in Johannesburg, South Africa, is a Massachusetts-based artist, internationally known for her unique pencil sculptures.

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Her sculptures were originally inspired by the form and function of the sea urchin.

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The spines of the urchin, so dangerous yet beautiful, serve as an explicit warning against contact.

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According to Maestre, there is true a fragility to the sometimes brutal aspect of the sculptures, vulnerability that is belied by the fearsome texture.

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To make the pencil sculptures, Jennifer take hundreds of pencils, cut them into 1-inch sections, drills a hole in each section (to turn them into beads), sharpens them all and sews them together.

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Jennifer Meastre’s fantastic art is a tribute to her eye for nature, its fragile state, and the magical way it protects itself.

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Jennifer Maestre’s sculptures can be found at http://www.jennifermaestre.com/.

Sunday Evening Art Gallery Blog — James Doran-Webb

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Wild horses…couldn’t drag me away….

Rolling Stones

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The amazing power of life and freedom has been captured perfectly in sculptor James Doran-Webb’s breathtaking driftwood sculptures.

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The driftwood’s seemingly unique forms lend themselves perfectly to figures such as wolves and horses and dragons.

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Working together with a team of craftsmen, it can take 1,000 to 3,000 hours to make a life size sculpture, depending upon the complexities of the armature and anatomy.

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James started to design driftwood furniture in the early 2000’s and it was while playing with the various natural forms that he was drawn to experiment with his first driftwood animal sculpture.

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His large supply of wood has made it possible for him to find the pieces which most lend themselves to the natural form and shape needed to give his animals the movement and reality he strives to obtain in every piece he creates.

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James Doran-Webb believes that his art is meant to promote environmental consciousness.

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“If I could make one person a little more aware of nature and the impact of nature on their lives I would be happy. I am a firm believer in our need to practice sustainable living in order to give future generations a better chance of survival.”

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James Doran-Webb‘s fantastic driftwood sculptures can be found at his website, http://jamesdoranwebb.com; a great article also can be found at http://www.boredpanda.com/driftwood-dragon-sculptures-james-doran-webb/.

Who Am I Tonight?

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Alright Readers, Writers, Painters, Sculptors, and all other Creative Musi —tumblr_n768syHP341tp9r4eo1_500

I have been on the writing rollercoaster for quite some time now, enjoying the ride when I can get it, thinking about it when I can’t. It feels good to admit that I have focus, a purpose, and a plan (at least this week).

Before I settled on my current plan, I entertained another idea. A book, a novel, that would have taken a lot of research and smart thought and emotes in worlds I don’t often delve into.

I was going to write a book about dementia from the patient/subject point of view.

Being a mixed genre writer, I was going to throw in some faerie stuff in the prologue, and have that be in the patient’s thoughts throughout the book. The ending I was going to leave up to the readers. It wasn’t going to be campy; it was going to be merely a different take on the situation.

It’s a great idea. A great story. But then I started to think. I don’t know anyone with dementia. I don’t have it (yet), don’t have family with it, or friends, or acquaintances. The thought itself terrifies me, so that would have been my point of view.

After a lot of thinking and rearranging and NOT being able to rearrange my life, I decided to go in a different direction, working with something that I’m already familiar with, something I think will be a hit.

But one of my fears was that those who did have loved ones going through this tragedy would be offended that I “took it too lightly.” I mean, mixing faeries and memory loss and loss of bodily functions — what was I thinking?

So what I wanted to know was, have you ever written/painted/created something out of your comfort zone? Did you finish it? Did you do anything with it? Did you get any reaction because of it?

Maybe you’re pretty clean-cut but wanted to write a sex or demon novel. Maybe you wanted to paint a nude of someone. Or sculpt a piece that, in one way or another, was offensive. Did you do it?

Society is strapped with bungee cords that hold us back from doing anything too off-kilter. I admit I often am a victim of it myself. I often wondered if I took a Stephen King turn at a short story if my family would think I’m psycho. Or if I wrote 600 Shades of Grey if my grandson would coil back in horror.

There is a little of us in everything we create. Even when we step out of our comfort zone there is still a thread that holds us to our sanity. To our safety. I know there have been plenty of artists who have pushed the boundaries of sanity, decorum, and sacred truths to make their art known.

I admit I’m not that adamant about testing the waters of propriety. I know there are plenty of sexy novels out there written by 60 year old little ladies, sculptures of nudes by conservative bankers, and all that. Somehow they either create a persona — a pen name/life — that takes the brunt of the criticism, or are so confident in who they are that they really don’t care.

I haven’t totally trashed the dementia idea, but because of the structure of my life at the moment I can’t give it the time, research, angst, and especially the respect, it deserves.

I’d really like to hear if you were tempted by another “you” — and if you ever followed that Muse.

And don’t worry — I won’t give away your secret —

— you will.

Sunday Evening Art Gallery Blog — Nathalie Miesbach

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To my young friends out there:

synergy

Life can be great, but not when you can’t see it.

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So, open your eyes to life:

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to see it in the vivid colors that God gave us

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as a precious gift to His children,

Antarctic Surveyor II

to enjoy life to the fullest,

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and to make it count.

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Say yes to your life.

Nancy Reagan

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Nathalie Miebach is an artist whose work focuses on the intersection of art and science and the visual articulation of scientific observations. Her woven sculptures interpret scientific data related to astronomy, ecology and meteorology in three-dimensional space.

You can find more of her intricate work at her website, http://nathaliemiebach.com.

Enjoy your wandering.

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Elizabeth Berrien

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When you think of wire, what do you think of?

 

Blue Heron in Flight

 Blue Heron in Flight

 Barbed wire? Electrical wire? Telephone wire?

 

Amaranth Arch

Amaranth Arch

Elizabeth Berrien has a totally different view of the world of wire. And the Art World couldn’t be more thrilled.

Year of the Horse

Year of the Horse

Elizabeth Berrien is one of the world’s foremost wire sculptors. She pioneered her own form of textile-based, hand-twisted, non-traditional wire sculpture in 1968.

Owl spirit

Owl Spirit

Elizabeth Berrien’s wire sculptures are made “the hard way”. No gloves, no pliers, no chicken wire. Each sculpture starts by twisting together two or three strands. Then, one by one, dozens or even hundreds more strands of wire are spliced in.

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Anthemm

Elizabeth continually digs and delves into the world of her subjects – whether real, or imaginary. She taps into the soul of animals, bringing that spirit into this world to create this awe-inspiring wire art.

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Wall Art

You can find much more of Elizabeth Berrien’s museum quality wire sculptures at her website, wirelady.com.  Please pay her world a visit.

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Unmask Group

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Photographs and paintings often give us a full representation of the subject.

 

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If we are all more than the sum of our parts, what are we if parts of us are missing?

 

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Can we be ever-so-much-more by showing ever-so-much-less?

 

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Or, more likely, what if we are more than just one thing?

 

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The Beijing-based group known as Unmask Group has managed to not only honor the human form through sculpture, but added a new twist to its visual appeal by subtracting redundant parts from the sculptures.

 

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I am amazed that so much can be said with so little.

 

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Liu Zhan, Kuang Jun and Tan Tianwei met while at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and have been producing sculptural work together since 2001.

 

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More wonderful art from the Masked Group can be found at

http://designcollector.net/sculptures-by-unmask/ and http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/01/dissolving-figurative-sculptures-by-unmask/.

See if you can decide which parts of you are shown, which parts have been cut away, and which parts have been melded with someone or something else.

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Dawn Whitehand

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Australian abstract artist Dawn Whitehand starts off her “about” page this way:

I am an Australian artist, making unique mixed media sculptures from clay, found objects and textured materials which are based on organic natural forms.

In the Balance

I have always thought of myself as a traditionalist when it came to Art — Renoir, Rembrandt, Redlin — those people I can understand.

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I never really paid attention to Abstract Art until I wandered into Dawn’s world.

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Working from my studio on the outskirts of Ballarat at the base of a slumbering volcano, I am very aware of my environment, its constant changing, and its vulnerability. I am also very aware of the current global environmental crisis.

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Within this context my art practice attempts to address these issues by making sculptural artworks that attempt to remind, though subliminally, the viewer of their innate connection to the Earth, and our reliance upon it for survival.

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And I started to understand. A little. That all art doesn’t have to be literal. That trees don’t have to look like trees, and volcanoes didn’t have to look like volcanoes.

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That Art, like Emotions, like Life, is different for everyone. Some just choose to share their unique view through creative arts.

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The thrill of interpretation is the same thrill we take with each breath.  And that there’s always someone willing to share their breath — and view — with you.

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Dawn is a multi-talented spirit. She creates jewelry and pottery and custom-made art sculptures. You can find her art at https://dawnwhitehand.wordpress.com, and contemporary poems, art, and drawings at https://apoemandadrawingaday.wordpress.com/.

Stop by and learn a little bit of Abstract Art for yourself.

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — It’s Okay to Have a Big Head

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I can’t begin to tell you the wonderful things I find on my way to other things. Art, in its most banal form, is an expression of emotion. Primal emotion. We all have those deep, basic feelings — we all just find different ways to express them.

Gao Zehn and Gao Qiang

You may say that some just have a “head” for creativity.

City Gardens, St. Louis

What makes artists want to create things larger than life?

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Is it a chance to look into the eyes of God?

Wonderland, Calgary, Canada

Or is it merely a chance to challenge space? To see what our vision looks like fifty feet high?

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No matter what the artist’s vision, grand is grand. Ambition has no limits. No dream is ever too small, ever to big.

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Nothing is more impressive than wearing proudly a head that is too big for your shoulders. For only then do you glimpse the world on the other side of the rainbow.

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Luke Jerram

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Glass is exquisite in its delicate beauty. A crystal vase, a hand-blown wine glass, a stained-glass window, all stir the pot of reactions that make the word “sparkle” sparkle. Working with glass is an incredible art. It is so delicate, so refined, a true art of mind over matter.

So what if glass represents a disease? Is it still “sparkling” and “refined”?

 

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 E. coli

There is beauty in the micro world as well. Artist  Luke Jerram has created a number of extraordinary art projects which have excited and inspired people around the globe.

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Salmonella

One of his highlights, Glass Microbiology, is a body of glass work that puts a crystal spin on some of the most deadly viruses.

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 Swine Flu

According to his website, ” By extracting the colour from the imagery and creating jewel-like beautiful sculptures in glass, a complex tension has arisen between the artworks’ beauty and what they represent.”

Hand, foot and mouth disease

Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease

Find time and wander over to Luke’s website:  www.lukejerram.com/glass . You will find it hard to believe that such horrible diseases could look so lovely.

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Ebola

Something New!

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The older I get (I never get tired of saying that!), the more I am taking time to discover corners of the world that I’ve never seen before. Now, that statement is all encompassing, all omnipotent. Yet for me, it’s very simple. I can only explore one line of extraordinary at a time. There is fantastic scenery, scrumptious foods, unusual land formations and mystical forms to be discovered.

For me, it is Unique Art.

What does that mean?

There are thousands of fantastic images floating around the Internet. Blogs and websites dedicated to all branches of the hallowed world of sculpture, photography, painting, sketching. I couldn’t possibly visit, showcase, and recommend all the beauty that exists outside my middle-aged sphere.

So I have decided that once a week I will showcase creativity that stands outside of reality. Outside the every day. Now, everything can fit into those parameters. So I hope to show you images you’ve never seen or imagined or saw somewhere on Facebook and let pass. Some will have links to websites; others will just be visions that have passed my way. I will honor the sites I borrow the visions from, and I do hope you take a few minutes to visit their homeworld.

If you’ve come across any unique worlds, let me know. Let’s make our next 20 years as out-of-the-box as we can make it!

And if any of my wanders tickle your fancy, let me know that, too. For I’d love to have company along the way….

Creative Face Offs

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They sculpt! They mold! They paint! They foam! And they are amazing!

I’m always a television season or six behind the rest of the world, but when I do catch up I find the wildest, greatest stuff. Only last week I recorded the latest season (Season 6) of Face Off. It’s a wonderful little show on SciFi TV that showcases another one of the “Arts”.

According to the IMDB, Face Off is a competition/elimination series exploring the world of special-effects make-up artists and the unlimited imagination which allows them to create amazing works of living art.

Now, I’ve been a fan of  shows that highlight personal creativity for years. Take cooking shows. The Iron Chef Japan was one of my earliest introductions into the exquisite beauty of food. Food as Art, as they say. Today’s contestants on Iron Chef America, Master Chef, and even Chopped, create these masterpieces that leave your jaw extended and your mouth open like a bass. I always find myself saying, “Oh…I could do that…couldn’t I?” Or “What didn’t I think of that?” Knowing darn well that I’d need a Master Kitchen, unlimited budget, a plethora of cookbooks and magazines, and a budget the size of a Presidential Dinner just to be clever on the plate.

Face Off is the “Master Chef” of sculpturing, molding, and painting. These contestants do things I only dream of. Each week they are assigned a different “creation”: dragons, wizards, robots. They have to come up with their own design, then use a warehouse full of props, materials, and models to create pieces that would easily fit in any blockbuster movie.

faceoff 1The most amazing part of this show – aside from the raw talent and imagination – is that these are (to my way of living) KIDS! They are 24. 26. 31. There was an oldie at 41. I can hardly remember what I was DOING at 27 – getting married, I think – but it certainly wasn’t creating magic like this, that’s for sure. They have cherry-colored hair and sticky up hair and mustaches and yellow Mohawks. They look like the guy next door or the girl from Planet 9. But they all share the love of creativity, something that runs through all of us.

I am just in awe of anyone who has such phenomenal talent to be able to create something from nothing but their imagination. I happen to be a proponent of writing, but there are so many other artistic expressions out there that I am often in that jaw dropping/bass-mouthed state of being.

I encourage you to constantly take a fresh look at the world around you. There are so many beautiful self expressions out there — in words, in sculpture, in jewelry.  Encourage everyone who has even an inkling to be artistic to do so. Whether it’s your grandbaby, your girlfriend, or your grandfather. Get them out there and get them to embrace their artsyness.face off 1

You will find it’s a rewarding feeling on both sides. And who knows what magic will blossom along the way?

 

 

all images courtesy of Face Off and the SciFi Channel