Exploring the landscape of imagination.

 

A year ago, chance led me to the Art Foundry in Sacramento, whose owner, Alan Osborn, is the Pied Piper of bronze sculpture. I had spent a lifetime working in wood and stone, and had found in California's redwood a wonderful medium for large outdoor pieces, a number of which I produced for a show in Cape Cod. The lure of bronze sculpture tore me away from the redwood.

Working directly in wax let me avoid the tedium of making molds and gave me an immediate sense of the piece. Bronze casting had always seemed remote, with the primary act of creation separated from the final artistic step of applying the patina by more than a dozen demanding steps. Working directly in wax cut several of the most tedious steps out of the process, collapsing the gap between conceptualization and realization.

It also capitalized on my experience with wood and stone. Where wood is essentially constructive, given to long, flat surfaces, and stone lends itself to organic shapes, ideal for rendering heads and bodies, bronze easily accommodated both, opening new dimensions in the creation of space and color. I could now work in color like a painter, with durable surfaces that held up indoors and out.

Thirty years ago I built a twenty foot tall cross of redwood for a monastery in a hurricane-prone site in Florida, taking considerable pains with the footing and finish to make it durable. It has survived four hurricanes, salty wind, extreme humidity, and Florida sun, and is in remarkable condition, considering. Had it been cast in bronze, it would be in perfect condition, if properly sealed, with every expectation that it would remain that way for 30, or possibly 300, years more.

Working in a medium this durable, with its incredible potential for beauty, is in an odd way daunting. Each piece must have a durable esthetic, something that is likely to have an impact on those who do not share the culture out of which it was created. Kitsch works in a piece that is likely to fall apart in sync with the ethos in which it was made. For something that will endure, one feels an obligation to create something with a deeper vibration in the human senses.

 

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