Sculpture Source

At A New Leaf Gallery and Sculpturesite Gallery, we represent more than a few women artists. While most of their work elicits admiration and appreciation, it is sometimes amusing, sometimes frustrating to notice the reactions to pieces by three of these women in particular.

Gale Hart and Lin Emery both create metal sculpture. Lin crafts exquisite kinetic creations of folded, finely welded aluminum. Gale works in reclaimed steel and stenciled automotive paint to turn out pieces with a more industrial bent.

Since both artists have gender-neutral names, visitors are often surprised to learn that these talented metalworkers are women. Comments ranging from, “But it’s so well-engineered, I thought the artist was a man,” to “Is she a big, brawny sort of gal?” have provoked a few (secretly) rolled eyes and playfully tactful comments along the lines of, “You know, sometimes we gals like to play with fire, too!” from our staff.

In contrast, Jane Burton’s large-scale ceramic work deals with the complex and often contradictory themes of womanhood. Sgraffito journal entries applied in oxides to elongated nudes with angel wings (Diva), metal halos (Aura) and golden removable breasts (DD: The Trophy Wife) embody each piece with a personal and very feminine spirit.

Reaction to Jane’s work usually falls along gender lines. Women typically love the pieces, as they communicate the experience of being a woman in a direct, universal language.

Men can be drawn to Jane’s sensual figures, but others show a neutral reaction to all but DD: The Trophy Wife. While women burst into peals of knowing laughter upon seeing the, uh…ample and perfectly shaped golden breasts dangling from a ribbon around the figure’s neck, men either guffaw self-consciously or re-focus everyone’s attention by commenting on an adjacent piece.

We would love to hear from you if you have experienced similar reactions to breaking traditional gender roles in the art world.

Here at A New Leaf Gallery, we find ourselves fortunate to be located at Cornerstone Sonoma. Chosen as one of the 100 Gardens to See Before You Die, Cornerstone features 22 installations created by renowned landscape designers. The gardens and the sculptures within them demonstrate the seamless integration of art and nature. Both owe their beauty to the elements and in some cases, to the wind in particular.

One especially intriguing garden is the work of San Francisco designer John Greenlee. Mediterranean Meadow consists entirely of undulating hills and valleys blanketed in tall grasses, native wildflowers and perennials. John conceptualized the garden as a nod to Sonoma’s traditional grasslands. Where grapevines now march acre upon acre across the rolling hills, cattle and sheep used to graze by the thousands.

Stepping into the meadow, a path paved with low grass winds in and out, up and down through waving stems of green and gray. The visitor’s pace slows as the whisper of grasses, a blinding blue sky, and tiny explosions of wildflower color mesmerize the senses. Birdsong pierces poignantly through the wind’s constant whistle and time slows to a crawl.

Suddenly, a glimpse of a dancing kinetic sculpture beckons. Around a bend in the path, Moto Ohtake’s Stellar Motion glints and spins above bobbing seed heads. Continuing down a dell and parting magenta stems alive with movement like ocean waves, Troy Pillow’s colorful Orion wind sculpture sails into view, planted firmly in the ground like the grasses surrounding it.

Voyaging further, the masts of Jeffery Laudenslager’s magnificent Hokusai (named in homage to Hiroshige’s wave woodblock print) rise and fall in a meditative spiral to complete the journey.

As the wind sculpts the hills and shapes the undulating movement of the meadow, it also works its magic on the kinetic sculptures punctuating the landscape in a delightful interplay of man-made and natural elements.