Tag Archives: sculpture

Episode 19: Jon Gariepy, Nautical Sculptor

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Grow­ing up in Long Beach, Calif.—a port town full of U.S. Navy sailors, the local ship­ping indus­try, and moth­balled World War II ships–left a last­ing impres­sion on ceramic sculp­tor Jon Gariepy.

These days he lives within an hour’s drive of the ocean and the San Fran­cisco Bay, where boat­yards and ships pro­vide mod­els for the work he cre­ates, includ­ing another decay­ing ghost fleet anchored for decades in the Bay Delta.

This artist’s clay ships, boats and sub­marines list to one side and break into pieces.  They rust and run aground, all with an aura of somber nobil­ity.  He says he loves boats and wants to express their “romance.”

Gariepy has exhib­ited through­out Cal­i­for­nia, often near the ocean, and, in Michi­gan, near one of the vast Great Lakes.  He has won sev­eral awards for his work and has shown his work twice at the pres­ti­gious Ceram­ics Annual of America.

Also a painter, Gariepy—naturally—portrays ships and the sea on his large canvases.

Men­tions:  Howard Pease, Cal­i­for­nia Mar­itime Acad­emy, Works & Conversation

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Episode 18: Sharon and Barclay Simpson, Supporters of the Arts

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In this episode lis­ten­ers will hear from the phil­an­thropic side of the art world in our inter­view with a cou­ple who have con­tributed mil­lions of dol­lars as well as abun­dant good­will and pas­sion to the arts and the artists who cre­ate it.

Many years ago — before seven chil­dren, a famous inter­na­tional man­u­fac­tur­ing busi­ness, a long and illus­tri­ous his­tory sup­port­ing the arts, and a notable art col­lec­tion — Bar­clay and Sharon Simp­son launched their rela­tion­ship at an arts fes­ti­val in a Cal­i­for­nia beach town.

Sharon grew up in a fam­ily that embraced the arts.  Bar­clay dis­cov­ered the arts as an adult.  But he jumped into to his new­found inter­est with enthu­si­asm and energy.  For years he took draw­ing and paint­ing courses.  Later he served as board chair­man of the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia, Berke­ley, Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.

For over 25 years the Simp­sons have spon­sored an annual award for grad­u­at­ing M.F.A. stu­dents at the Cal­i­for­nia Col­lege of the Arts in Oak­land, Calif., where Bar­clay was given an hon­orary doc­tor­ate.  On the school’s cam­pus sits a sleek sculp­ture facil­ity bear­ing the names of Sharon and Bar­clay Simp­son, who paid for its con­struc­tion.  And the cou­ple oper­ated their own art gallery for 13 years, help­ing to help launch the careers of young and tal­ented artists.

The list of phil­an­thropic work goes on, includ­ing sup­port for a nation­wide pro­gram to encour­age child lit­er­acy in low-income areas and a sea­sonal out­door Shake­speare fes­ti­val.  Because of their belief in the power of the arts to boost pos­i­tive growth and learn­ing, the Simp­sons have for years invested their per­sonal wealth to ben­e­fit chil­dren, artists and communities.

 

Men­tions:  Bruce John­son, Alexan­der Archipenko, Tom Wal­dron, Ossip Zakine, Ger­ard Tsu­takawa, Tola Inbar, Indira John­son, Mary Bates, Bella Feld­man, Alfio Rapis­ardi, Jim Cook, Jun Kaneko, Leslie Safarik, Kathe Koll­witz 

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Episode 17: Jesus Sosa Calvo and Stan Peterson, Masters of Wood

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In the vil­lage of San Mar­tin Tilca­jete about 26 miles from the city of Oax­aca, Mex­ico, there is a home stu­dio run by Jesus Sosa Calvo, a mas­ter wood carver of ale­bri­jes, the col­or­ful, fan­tas­ti­cal crea­tures for which the state of Oax­aca is known.  Sosa, his brother, sis­ter, daugh­ter and son all work to pro­duce the painted fig­ures, which are often carved from copal, an indige­nous wood.

As with sev­eral vil­lages in the state of Oax­aca, the res­i­dents of San Mar­tin Tilca­jete are known for a par­tic­u­lar craft, in this case ale­bri­jes, which they sell to stores and gal­leries in Oax­aca city and to vis­it­ing tourists.  Sosa’s Zapotec vil­lage is also known for its beau­ti­ful colo­nial church, cer­e­mo­nial and cul­tural tra­di­tions, as well as its prox­im­ity to nearby arche­o­log­i­cal sites, includ­ing Mitla, a pre-Columbian urban cen­ter with carved stone friezes that have influ­enced the designs of regional artisans.

Sosa is one of Mexico’s bet­ter known carvers.  His work has been fea­tured in books about the arts and crafts of Mex­ico and, espe­cially, Oax­aca, an area rec­og­nized through­out the world for its rich crafts tra­di­tion.  He has worked with art stu­dents in the San Fran­cisco Bay Area, both host­ing them at his work­shop and trav­el­ing to the U.S. for artist-in-residence programs.

Stan Peter­son and Sosa share a friend­ship and a love of wood for its capac­ity to por­tray whim­si­cal, evoca­tive fig­ures.  Peter­son, a self-taught wood­carver from Oak­land, Calif., received his B.A. in Fine Art from Port­land State Uni­ver­sity and a M.S. in Spe­cial Edu­ca­tion from West­ern States Col­lege.  His work has been exhib­ited in New York, Cal­i­for­nia, New Mex­ico, Texas and the Pacific North­west, and is included in many pub­lic and pri­vate col­lec­tions, includ­ing the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

“I carve wood sculp­tures, which depict moments when some­thing is about to hap­pen,” writes Peter­son, who has also spent more than 25 years teach­ing wood­work­ing, includ­ing  carv­ing, to the devel­op­men­tally dis­abled.  “These are every­day moments, some­times poignant, some­times with an edge of humor.”

Peter­son first met Sosa in Oax­aca, where the two artists quickly bonded.  In 2012 Peter­son trav­eled to Bali on a foun­da­tion grant to study with a mas­ter carver of tra­di­tional masks.

Men­tions:  Glo­ria Lopez Cordova

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Episode 16: Wanxin Zhang, Ceramic Sculptor

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In this short video Sculpt­cast Con­ver­sa­tions presents Wanxin Zhang, a San Fran­cisco sculp­tor who was born in China and stud­ied at the LuXun Acad­emy of Fine Arts before emi­grat­ing to the U.S.  He’s best known for his some­times humor­ous, some­times polit­i­cal inter­pre­ta­tions of the famous ter­ra­cotta war­riors from the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emperor. Zhang’s work is rep­re­sented in numer­ous pub­lic and pri­vate col­lec­tions both nation­ally and internationally.

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Episode 14: Steve Oliver, Oliver Ranch Sculpture Park

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Steve Oliver owns a suc­cess­ful con­struc­tion com­pany in the San Fran­cisco Bay Area.  He’s also a pas­sion­ate sup­porter of the arts who has served as board chair­man of the San Fran­cisco Museum of Mod­ern Art and the Smithsonian’s Hir­sh­horn Museum and Sculp­ture Gar­den.  But he is per­haps best known in the art world for Oliver Ranch, a sculp­ture park in Sonoma County, about 70 miles north of San Francisco.

On 100 acres once devoted to graz­ing sheep, Oliver and his wife Nancy have installed 18 site-specific, one-of-a-kind sculp­tures by some of the country’s finest artists, includ­ing Ann Hamil­ton, Andy Goldswor­thy, Bruce Nau­man, Ellen Driscoll and Mar­tin Puryear.

Steve works closely with the artists, pro­vid­ing tech­ni­cal assis­tance (such as the crane he shipped from Ari­zona to install a 245-ton Richard Serra sculp­ture) and a wel­com­ing stay at the ranch that leads to deep and last­ing rela­tion­ships.  He leads pub­lic tours in sum­mer and fall as fund-raisers for non-profit orga­ni­za­tions.  Ann Hamilton’s mind-bending tower, installed in 2007, now hosts orig­i­nal per­for­mances of music and dance.

In 2009 the Oliv­ers estab­lished a foun­da­tion that will assure the sculp­tures remain in place in perpetuity.

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Episode 13: Ellen Driscoll, Public and Installation Artist

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For six weeks in 2011 a flotilla of white plas­tic called “Dis­tant Mir­rors” rocked on the tides of the Prov­i­dence River in Prov­i­dence, Rhode Island.  Ellen Driscoll, head of the sculp­ture depart­ment at the Rhode Island School of Design and an estab­lished sculp­tor in the reclaimed mate­ri­als move­ment, glued and then stitched this instal­la­tion in the shape of islands and the North Amer­i­can con­ti­nent.  Given its ori­gins, the piece showed sur­pris­ing beauty both by day and night.

Driscoll says she “explores resource con­sump­tion and mate­r­ial lin­eage,” using castoff mate­ri­als like plas­tic bot­tles com­pressed into a block by the Rhode Island Resource and Recov­ery Asso­ci­a­tion — only a tiny por­tion of this small state’s mas­sive waste stream. For the past five years these dis­carded plas­tics have served as her pri­mary mate­r­ial for sculpture.

Her work is included in numer­ous major pri­vate and pub­lic col­lec­tions, includ­ing the Whit­ney Museum and Met­ro­pol­i­tan Museum of Art.  Driscoll has cre­ated numer­ous pieces of pub­lic art, among them 20 mosaic and glass works for three of New York’s Grand Cen­tral Sta­tion tun­nels and a kinetic sculp­ture for the South Boston Mar­itime Park.

She has been awarded fel­low­ships from the Guggen­heim Foun­da­tion, the National Endow­ment for the Arts, the New York Foun­da­tion for the Arts and oth­ers.  Driscoll earned a BA in Fine Arts from Wes­leyan Uni­ver­sity and MFA in Sculp­ture from Colum­bia Uni­ver­sity.  Her work is included in such major col­lec­tions as the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Museum of Art and the Whit­ney Museum of Art.

Men­tions: Pablo Picasso, Henry Moore, Barn­aby Evans, Water­Fire Prov­i­dence, Eliz­a­beth King, Andy Ness, Mar­tin Puryear, Joseph Beuys

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Episode 12: Bruce Wolfe, Figurative Sculptor

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Click for a bonus video show­ing Wolfe at work in his studio.

Bruce Wolfe’s sculp­ture career spans more than four decades.  He spe­cial­izes in fig­u­ra­tive por­traits and has ren­dered works of such notable pub­lic fig­ures as for­mer British Prime Min­is­ter Mar­garet Thatcher, the late U.S. rep­re­sen­ta­tive and civil rights activist Bar­bara Jor­dan, for­mer U.S. Sec­re­tary of State George Schultz, for­mer Supreme Court Chief Jus­tice William Rehn­quist and leg­endary boxer Muham­mad Ali.  For Thatcher’s statue, Wolfe trav­eled to Eng­land to sit with the the grande dame of British pol­i­tics and take pho­tos and measurements.

He stud­ied art at San Jose State Uni­ver­sity and the San Fran­cisco Art Insti­tute.  Start­ing his career as an art direc­tor for a big adver­tis­ing firm in San Fran­cisco, Wolfe even­tu­ally turned to illus­tra­tion and went out on his own.  One of his first sculp­ture com­mis­sions was of Kurt Adler, music direc­tor of the San Fran­cisco Opera.

Wolfe has sculpted works that con­vey the per­son­al­i­ties of may­ors, city founders, col­lege pres­i­dents,  major donors, col­lege coaches, notable ath­letes, an opera direc­tors, med­ical pio­neers, and reli­gious fig­ures.  They stand, they con­tem­plate, they sit, they observe in ways com­pletely char­ac­ter­is­tic to the per­son represented.

Four of Wolfe’s 7-foot bronze fig­ures can be found in niches of the his­toric chapel at the Old Mis­sion in Santa Bar­bara rep­re­sent­ing St. Clare, St. Fran­cis, Mary Mag­da­lene and Christ.  His 9-foot statue of bas­ket­ball great Magic John­son is located at Michi­gan State University.

For each of his fig­ures Wolfe researches exact dress and man­ner­isms, going so far as to col­lect cloth­ing, jew­elry and other items as well as vis­it­ing his subject’s home and work­place to ensure a wholly accu­rate pre­sen­ta­tion.  He starts work in clay, using the fin­ished piece to cre­ate the mold for a bronze pour, then com­plet­ing the project with a patina finish.

Men­tions:  Richard McDon­ald, Lamar Hunt, Mario Lemieux, Art­works Foundry, Gladding McBean, George Shultz, Nor­man Shumway, Edgar Odell Lovette, Frank Gehry, John Han­nah

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Episode 11: Brian Dettmer, Book Sculptor

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Brian Dettmer takes ana­log media — old instruc­tional books, art books, sci­ence and engi­neer­ing books, his­tory books, comic books, med­ical texts, dic­tio­nar­ies, ency­clo­pe­dias, maps, cas­sette tapes — and with an X-Acto knife and hun­dreds of razor-sharp blades turns them into detailed and extrav­a­gantly lay­ered sculp­tural works.

At Colum­bia Col­lege in Chicago, Dettmer orig­i­nally focused on paint­ing.  But after grad­u­at­ing in 1997 he worked in graphic design and sig­nage.  Three years later he started tear­ing, cut­ting, frag­ment­ing and glu­ing books, the medium that has earned him an inter­na­tional reputation.

Dettmer’s work has been shown in Slove­nia, the Nether­lands, Spain, Eng­land, Canada, Ger­many, Mex­ico and through­out the United States, includ­ing solo shows in New York, Chicago, Miami, San Fran­cisco, Atlanta and Barcelona.  He has also been fea­tured in the CBS Evening News, The New York Times, The Guardian in the United King­dom, Wired, National Pub­lic Media and more.

An exhi­bi­tion of Dettmer’s work will open Oct. 20, 2012 and run through Jan. 5, 2913 at The Museum of Con­tem­po­rary Art of Geor­gia in Atlanta.

Men­tions:  Doug Beube, Tom Fried­man

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Episode 10: John Gow, Connells Bay Sculpture Park, New Zealand

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In 1993, John and Jo Gow bought a 60-acre coastal prop­erty on Wai­heke Island, a 30-minute ferry ride from Auck­land, New Zealand, intend­ing to restore the prop­erty from sheep pas­tures to all-native plants.  Years later, real­iz­ing they had cre­ated “out­door rooms,” they decided to install sculp­ture suited to each unique set­ting on the property.

In this pod­cast, John Gow tells the story of cre­at­ing what even­tu­ally became the Con­nells Bay Sculp­ture Park, now well known around the world for its more than 30 sophis­ti­cated and sur­pris­ing site-selected sculp­tures exclu­sively by New Zealand’s lead­ing con­tem­po­rary artists.  About half the pieces have been com­mis­sioned from sculp­tors invited to stay in one of the property’s cot­tages and develop a vision with­out inter­fer­ence from their bene­fac­tors, who appre­ci­ate the process, the art and the rela­tion­ships that emerge.

Before open­ing Con­nells Bay, John Gow, a for­mer banker, raised fund­ing for musi­cal the­ater in major cities such as Lon­don and New York, includ­ing “Cats,” “Les Mis­er­ables,” “Phan­tom of the Opera” and “Miss Saigon.”  He and Jo Gow applied their con­sid­er­able energy in 2002 to co-founding with oth­ers “Sculp­ture on the Gulf,” a bi-annual event that dis­plays juried art along a 2– to 3-mile walk­way on Wai­heke Island.  They’re also help­ing to orga­nize the Inter­na­tional Sculp­ture Cen­ter’s Feb. 11–15, 2013 annual con­fer­ence in Auk­land, hop­ing to bring greater recog­ni­tion to New Zealand’s bur­geon­ing sculp­ture community.

The artists rep­re­sented at Con­nells Bay Sculp­ture Park, open from mid-October to mid-April for guided tours.

Men­tions:  The Mallin Col­lec­tion & Buck­horn Sculp­ture Park, Anish Kapoor, Gibbs Farm, Kroller-Muller Sculp­ture Gar­den, Maya Lin, Richard Serra, The Han­nah Peschar Sculp­ture Garden

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Episode 9: Emeryville, Calif. Public Art

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Over 25 years ago, a small com­mu­nity on the shores of San Fran­cisco Bay was tran­si­tion­ing from an indus­trial hub to a retail des­ti­na­tion and art com­mu­nity.  Attracted by easy access to Berke­ley, Oak­land and San Fran­cisco, as well as low-rent spaces, artists started mov­ing in as man­u­fac­tur­ing moved out.

And Emeryville responded, in 1990 tak­ing a bold step for a small town (pop­u­la­tion less than 10,000 at the time) of estab­lish­ing a “per­cent for art” ordi­nance that requires pri­vate com­mer­cial devel­op­ers to con­tribute 1 per­cent of their total build­ing costs and devel­op­ers of large res­i­den­tial build­ings to con­tribute half a per­cent to pub­lic art.  Today Emeryville is home to com­pa­nies like ani­ma­tion giant Pixar and Nor­var­tis Diag­nos­tics as well as what the city esti­mates as hun­dreds of artists.

More than 70 sculp­tures and other pieces of art fill Emeryville’s 1.25 square miles, includ­ing 23 bright yel­low and black util­ity boxes designed and painted by an artist with stu­dents from Emeryville High School.  The city also spon­sors an annual pur­chase award, rotat­ing exhibits at local restau­rants, instal­la­tions of tem­po­rary art in pub­lic places, an annual art exhi­bi­tion and open art studios.

In this episode Sharon Wilchar, tex­tile artist, arts admin­is­tra­tor, long­stand­ing mem­ber of the Emeryville Pub­lic Arts Com­mit­tee and founder of the city’s Art in Pub­lic Places Pro­gram, describes how the pro­gram works.

Then Vickie Jo Sow­ell, an Emeryville res­i­dent for more than 30 years, dis­cusses the real­i­ties of work­ing as a sculp­tor in the pub­lic realm.  The city’s art col­lec­tion includes seven of her pieces, among them the Pick­le­works Gate with a motif that cel­e­brates the ori­gins of an old brick factory-turned-commercial space.

Emeryville Pub­lic Art Map & Photo Tour

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