My Sense of Art
ART begins in silence, almost narcissistically, as one individual searches for the beautiful in many areas until finally settling on a particular subject that can be transformed by the mind of the artist. Aloneness is involved as the individual delves into constructions and re-constructions that speak in a unique way to his or her own soul. Blending all that is known with all that is secretly felt the artist makes visible that which, heretofore, has been invisible within. Original attempts in art are similar to the first few words of a child. The depths are speaking through the person's life experiences and are being translated into an artistic medium.
Somewhere along the journey of creative fascination a transformation takes place, and the artist wants to communicate that felt depth to someone else. It is at this point that art becomes a labor of love, a shot into the darkness hoping that someone out there will see and understand, will be touched in a similar depth, and will hear the rhythm of the work as did the creator. In making this jump away from narcissism the artistic individual joins with all those who have had beauty seep into their soul so deeply that it had to be communicated. This is the source of grand music, great sculpture, magnificent paintings, and all the rest of the honored mediums of expression.
My particular bent in wood sculpture is to juxtapose life and death, creation and destruction, continuance and decay. I want to reveal how a root's very life force energy fought against the elements and was victorious as it sent life to the tree. I see celebration in these old roots who faithfully anchored a tree in hundreds of seasons.
To my mind, the roots are a metaphor of how life is to be lived - with hidden victories, hidden determination, and powerfully secret, but forceful will to continue to provide life during all the seasons of the soul. My job, as artist, is to so perfect my skills that my contribution to the root is invisible so that any traveler will think that the sculptural result is natural and unshaped by the hand of man. This shapes the original goal which is to move from private appreciation to the desire to contribute out of the spirit of love.
