Sculpture Source

Sculpturesite's Booth at LA Art Show

Can you really distinguish yourself when you are but one of 110 galleries in a show of over 15,000 works of art from a myriad of genres including painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography and video?  Is it possible to stand out in a crowd of an estimated 35,000 serious collectors and dedicated art enthusiast all buzzing around a 720,000 sq/ft convention center?  Sculpturesite Gallery answered those questions at the FADA LA Art Show with a resounding – yes, you can!

The event started inauspiciously with rain, rain and more rain.  On average, the sun shines on Los Angeles 338 days a year. Sunny Southern California did not, at first, live up to its promise.  However, while it tended to dampen a few heads and shoulders it could not dampen the enthusiasm of the thousands who attended.  And when the flood of water finally receded on Saturday, the flood of people arrived.  John Denning and Brigitte Micmacker, the owners of Sculpturesite, were more than ready to receive them.

Word spread quickly.  There was a booth near the food court, open at three sides, perfect for foot traffic, which was meticulously planned and presented.  It looked more like a gallery than a booth.  In conversational circles of attendees, Sculpturesite’s space was called “the best booth for sculpture,” and while there, you could see “the best works in the entire show.”  Said another attendee: “your booth is such a breath of fresh air – so lively and light.” It was obviously attracting attention.

“Dark Blue Rain-Curtain”, a massive, yet delicate cast glass piece by Mary Shaffer and “Summer”, a hyper-realistic swimmer resting on an inner-tube (both in meticulously painted resin) by Carole Feuerman were described by many as show stoppers.  The same could be said for the majestic Jeffery Laudenslager kinetic piece, “Hokusai.”  It had a prominent place in the middle of the food court -but will soon relocate to its new permanent home in Malibu.  The rest of the collection was wonderfully varied allowing something for everyone.  Jane Woolverton’s delicate recycled, plastic tapestries played off the monumental material and feel of Benjamin Brown’s steel and glass and Hans Van de Bovenkamp’s bronze.  Brad Howe’s playful mobiles stood in perfect contrast to the elegant pieces of Clement Meadmore.  These sculptures did speak for themselves but for those who wanted more, Mary Shaffer, Carole Feuerman, Jeffery Laudenslager, Brad Howe, Benjamin Brown and John Denning were all present to talk about their work.

All who attended had a memorable experience.  We at Sculpturesite greatly appreciate all who attended. If you would like more information on any of the works or artists you saw, please let us know. If you were unable to see the show, we will be glad to send more photos. And please stop by Sculpturesite Gallery.  Many of the pieces that we displayed at the LA Art Show are now currently on exhibition in San Francisco.  We will see you soon!

Toxic paint fumes, heavy metals, and frequent trips to the landfill are some of the negatives that have historically come with the territory of creating art. However, “the times, they are a-changin.” A new breed of artist is emerging who is concerned with global warming while remaining committed to crafting fine art of the highest caliber.

A New Leaf Gallery is currently featuring two such vanguard artists’ works.

Gale Hart, a Sacramento-based artist who creates innovative functional sculpture influenced by contemporary graphic design, is passionate about making art that is kinder to the environment. This sensibility has permeated her work throughout her career.

“The opportunity for artists to be green is out there: what’s lacking is the commitment,” states Gale. “It’s too easy to be toxic.”

Gale uses 95% production remnants and scrap steel in her work because new steel fabrication is one of the world’s worst polluters: the extraction and production process destroys landscapes, pollutes waterways and blackens skies with toxic smoke.

Equally alarming, since most new steel is now produced in China, its “embodied energy cost,” or quantity of non-renewable resources used to create and ship the product to the United States, is one of the highest among the most commonly used fine sculpture materials.

To mitigate this negative environmental impact, Gale uses recycled steel sourced locally in Central California. She picks up a load at a time, traveling a distance of less than 100 miles and saving the 7000 miles required to ship new steel from Shandong Port in China to the Port of Oakland, CA.

Gale is in the process of completing the green picture by transitioning the finishes she uses on her work from spray paint and latex to water-based paints with an eco-friendly clear coat.

“It’s a constant struggle to be mindful and do without petroleum products, but it’s absolutely the right thing to do.” Gale says.

James Woessner is a Sausalito, CA-based artist with a completely different product but equal passion for environmental sustainability. By repurposing materials in new ways to create his whimsical, colorful figures, James starts with the three R’s of environmental consciousness (REduce, REuse, REcycle) and adds a fourth: REplace.

James’ new collection entitled “Floating Heads” utilizes found objects that wash up on the beachfront near his houseboat studio on the San Francisco Bay waterfront. His sculpture “Regina” is fabricated from a cast-off Regina floor sweeper, wooden kitchen spoon, tray handle, bamboo skewers, and rusty pieces of metal.

“Old Flattop” communicates a green message by using a men’s shoe heel as an ear and a fork as a nose, anchoring the whole arrangement with 400 copper nails gathered from the beach in  Sausalito. His “Aviso” makes clever re-use of a hammerhead, saw blades, and a gas cap.

James says, “True art is a response to the imagination, which can never be allowed to stagnate.” Like the ebb and flow of ocean currents in the Bay, or the steady movement from mindless waste to eco-consciousness in our society, James innovative approach to “worthless” materials keeps his work fresh and constantly innovative.

Please visit A New Leaf Gallery to view Gale Hart and James Woessner’s latest eco-friendly work.

Detail of "Grieving," by Jerry Ross Barrish

We participate in consumption – the satisfaction of wants resulting chiefly in destruction, deterioration, or transformation.  The objects we create experience consumption – the progressive wasting away of the body. It is an efficiently detached relationship.  Whatever emotional connection, if any, to our belongings we have, eventually they lose their hold on our attention and we consign them to landfills or the depths of the sea.  We have little time for empathy when ephemerality is the standard.  But some of these castaways are resilient.  They push against our enmity.  They resurface or wash ashore.

This is when Jerry Ross Barrish finds them and breaths life into the inanimate. This is not creation ex nihilo but creation ex vetus adveho novus – out of the old comes the new.  They combine and reconstitute into more than the sum of their plastic parts while still maintaining the markings and scars of their former life.  Bent, distorted industrial drainage tubes, series 73681-82000, become a subtle set of controposto hips and legs.  “Made in Mexico” containers transform into a hunched torso. The curve of a misused snorkel creates a cradling arm and hand.  A cratered and scuffed toy ball marked “Supper Tuff” is a makeshift, downcast, mournful head.  Refuse - discarded, unwanted, isolated – reconstitutes itself through anthropomorphic redemption.  But this is not all.  Barrish has one more act of transformation and transcendence.  As if in defiance for the once consumed, he has cast several of these assembled detritus into bronze.  Ephemerality is now corporealized.  Ironically, decay is permanently preserved. Long after the consumers themselves have passed away through consumption, those who were once the objects of consumption will live on.

Through this multi-layered transformation, Barrish requires a reconsideration of human empathy.  His objects of castaway materials take on the form and likeness of those who have discarded them.  But they are more than human in form.  They are also human in substance.  Feeling. Emotive. Empathetic.  Despite their lowly genesis, they have transcended their own fleeting material by communicating the very thing that was originally denied them.  They have the last laugh.  Yet, these do not seem to have the disposition of vengeful irony.  They remember their humble history.  They do not gloat.  They look back on us and give in the face of thoughtless waste.  They were treated apathetically yet they reveal what can be of highest nobility - emotion. Joy. Sorrow. Play. Contemplation. The desirable attributes of the consumer have been mastered by the consumed.  Roles have reversed.

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.

Restoration Work on Michelangelo's David

Relatively recently Michelangelo’s David underwent extensive restoration.  The process and certainly the result divided the public in a firestorm of controversy.  Was the restoration necessary?  Was this monument of culture saved from advancing age or forever destroyed in the name of restoration?  Who was serviced more, the work of art or the careers of those who oversaw the restoration?  These questions become particularly pertinent here at home with the San Francisco Art Commission’s announced plans to restore Peter Voulkos’ piece at the Hall of Justice.  When is restoration needed?  When does it cross the line from help to hindrance?  This much can be said: for every insistent restorationist you will find an equally passionate traditionalist.  Each has valid arguments; each believes to be acting in the name of the greater good.  There is a place at the table for both.

The ensign of restoration waves for one of two reasons – delaying destruction and restoring original intent.  Until a Muse grants a primetime interview, we will never know the true original condition of the work or the intent of its creator.  He, and he alone knows how it was created and how it should be cared for. Thus, little can be said of “original intent.”  Even if this unknowable could be known, would we necessarily want it?  Canonized masterpieces are elder statesmen.  They no longer have the vivacity of their youth or the energy of innovation but they have something of equal worth - scars, wrinkles, and blemishes.  We look to them not because of their smooth alabaster skin but because time has given them a uniquely insightful patina of experience.  A 500-year-old crack can sometimes carry more significance then unblemished youth.

However, at what point do we allow a meaningful crack to become a thousand scars of decay?  When do the distinguished marks of age become destructive to the work’s fundamental identity?  At some point, even the most archival work requires help to prolong the inevitable reach of time.  It is at this point that the skills of restoration are essential and needed.  But where is this point?  When is it time to intervene?  Therein is the line of gray.

If the artwork is in scientifically verifiable and incontrovertible peril, proceed, but proceed with caution.  If restoration is undertaken for other reasons, leave it alone.  We will never know how it looked in its youth so let us continue to venerate the image we have now.  If a painting is deemed “sick” and in need of treatment then conservationists, who consider themselves the “doctors,” should take the artistic equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath – “do no harm.”  Is the treatment a cosmetic tummy tuck or a double bypass?  Are we prolonging the life of our elder statesmen or turning our canon into the artistic equivalent of Joan Rivers and Michael Jackson?  Aging has its grace and beauty.  Interfere only when there is real need.

What bearing does this have on the aforementioned Voulkos restoration?  Is this cosmetic or essential surgery?  Years of neglect have caused unnatural, accelerated aging.  When the piece was initially installed a much needed endowment for upkeep was never established.  It now desperately needs our attention.  Fortunately the restoration plans include raising funds to establish an endowment for regular upkeep hopefully making future restoration projects unnecessary.  Indeed, this is surgery with a much needed dose of preventative medicine.

On May 25th, 2009, Brigitte Micmacker conducted an interview with Mark Chatterley. Chatterley opened a new solo exhibition at Sculpturesite Gallery on June 25th.

BM:  Your large groupings are extraordinary! Some evoke circus feats, while others seem to have sexual overtones. There are often recognizable yoga positions. How do you get the inspiration for these compositions?

MC:   I do a little yoga and try to keep somewhat fit.  Understanding how my body works so I can translate it into clay.   I do a lot of drawing to get an idea of where I want to go with group figures.  What I want to say.   Sometime this includes sexual overtones or psychological situations. On the stacked groupings, I start with one figure on the bottom, then I build on top using the figure underneath to support the upper figures.   I have to build them so they can come apart as individual figures and I can move them to the kiln.  For the glaze firing, I fire them in the group.  That way they shrink and warp as one piece.

BM:  What other sculptors’ works do you admire most?

MC:   I like looking at Anthony Gormley, Robert Brady, Isamu Noguchi, Louise Bourgeois, Martin Puryear, Lee Bontecou,  But I also like looking at two dimensional artists’ work like Robert Parke Harrison  and Paul Wunderlich.

BM:  You have taught many workshops and classes. What is your favorite aspect of teaching?

MC:   It keeps me on my toes mentally.   I have to figure out why I do things so I can teach it to students.  It also forces me to learn something new.   I have been teaching an advanced ceramic course for years, and there is a core group of students who have been taking the class from me year after year.  I thought that I had told them everything that I knew the first year, so coming up with something new is a challenge.   And I like to think that I take the same challenge of always coming up with something new with my work.

BM:  Thank you, Mark. I look forward to seeing your new exhibition of figurative sculpture, BEINGS: Clay Musings on the Human Condition at Sculpturesite Gallery next month!

On May 25th, 2009, Brigitte Micmacker conducted an interview with Mark Chatterley. Chatterley will open a new solo exhibition of figurative ceramic sculpture at Sculpturesite Gallery on June 25th.

BM:  Mark, you mentioned in a recent interview in Ceramics Monthly that your favorite part of what you do is the building of the figures, and that the glazing is not as exciting to you. As a gallerist who has sold quite a number of your works, I would say that your unique use of glazes is actually a very important part of the appeal for your work. How did you come about your particular “recipe” for what you call the “lava glazes” with the distinctive craters and flowing details?

MC:   I realized early on that I didn’t want to use a typical shinny glaze on the work. The Netsler’s  were a husband and wife potter team in the 50s that used an interesting texture glaze.  So I set out to see if I could get an interesting texture of my own.  It took several years with lots of experimenting  to where I am today.  Now I am playing with the bubble size with different chemicals.  Bone ash and silicon carbide, to name a few.  But it is not an exact science.   Atmosphere in the kiln, weather outside, how thick I apply the glaze, all affect the results.  It is always exciting for me to open the kiln after the glaze fire to see what is in there.   The one nice thing that I discovered by working this way is I can load the kiln so the pieces touch each other, Supporting each other so they don’t melt down.  When I open the kiln I take a hammer and chisel and separate them.  Giving them another added texture.  This is something that was told to me not to do when I went to school.  Maybe that is why I work this way.  Maybe the one reason I don’t like glazing as much as building the sculptures is  when I apply the glaze all the different colors look the same, a dull gray.  I have to imagine what it will look like after it is fired.

BM:  Your sculptures have a primordial presence that transcends time and geography. Viewers sense a deep connection to mythology and philosophical anthropology in your work. Have you studied or developed a personal interest in either field of study?

MC:  I have an interest in past cultures and how my work will be viewed a 100 years from now.  I am also interested in world religions, past and present.  And how artwork conveys these belief systems.   I am currently thinking of art as instinct and how if affects our every day lives and how it was used for survival and passed down through the generations.  

On May 25th, 2009, Brigitte Micmacker conducted an interview with Mark Chatterley. Chatterley will open a new solo exhibition of figuartive ceramic sculptures at Sculpturesite Gallery on June 25th: BEINGS -Clay Musings on the Human Condition.

BM:  So do you build your clay sculptures using slabs or wide coils?

MC:  I use slabs, 5/8 inches thick by 8 inches wide.  I have a slab roller that can roll 50 pounds of clay flat at a time. 

BM:  How do they hold up while they are drying?

MC:  I work 8 inches a day on each sculpture, with as many as 12 sculptures going on at one time.  I let the clay stiffen up each day so it will support the clay of the next layer.   The one problem working this way is I can’t go back and work on the bottom once I reach the top, for it will be dry on the bottom and wet on top.   On skinny, tall work I use cement blocks on the outside to support the work as I build.   I do drawings for each piece before I start so I know where I am going with the sculpture as I am working.

BM:  I understand that you have developed your own clay body that is mixed especially for you. Are you after a certain workability, or strength for the finished sculptures when you determine the properties you want in a clay body?

MC:  Clay is such a great material to work with.  You can make anything with it.  But one problem is in green ware the pieces are fragile, so I add materials to the clay body to give it strength at that stage of work.  Another problem is when you fire the work to vitrification, there is a lot of shrinkage.  So I add material to help with that.   The work still shrinks 10%.  Some materials are Kyanite, mullite, grog.  Different clays from around the country.

BM:  About how much clay do you go through in a year?

MC:  18,000 pounds.

On May 25th, 2009, Brigitte Micmacker conducted an interview with Mark Chatterley. Chatterley will open a new solo exhibition at Sculpturesite Gallery on June 25th.

Brigitte Micmacker:  Mark, you have been making life-size figurative sculptures in clay for close to twenty years now. What was the impetus for moving in this direction?

Mark Chatterley:  I didn’t realize it has been so long, it seems like I am just starting on working on the figure.  I started out my career by making vessels, but they soon got boring, everything was round or distorted round.   I came to think of the pots as human forms.  The names you use to describe a vessel are human: lip, foot, belly, neck, shoulder.   So I decided to go right to the figure and take the functional quality out of the work.  The ancient Greeks postulated that Man is the measure of all things.  So I set out to understand the human condition.  Proportions, relationships, survival.

BM:  You built your own walk-in kiln, which you fill with many works and fire every three months. Did you adapt your work method to this huge kiln, or did you build the kiln to match your natural work rhythms? 

MC:  My kiln is 700 cubic feet, 8 feet high by 9 feet wide by 10 feet long.  I like that I can walk right into the kiln to load the work.  The reason I built such a big kiln was that I wanted to work big but did not want to fire the works in parts.  I found the seams to be visually distracting.   I thought I would never build anything bigger then this kiln.  The second time I fired it I had to dig the floor out to get the work in.  I fire a body of work around every 3 months.  I build non stop 6-7 days a week to fill the kiln.  Then I bisque fire, next the work comes out and I glaze for 2 weeks, and re-fire.

(interview will continue tomorrow)