Doing the Hokeypokey by Georgia Gerber |
By Margaret L. Brown
Ever since ancient man first picked up clay and molded a figure or carved a crude image in stone, artists have been replicating the world around them and the symbols meaningful to them in three-dimensional form. Today’s sculptors working in bronze, wood, stone, glass, clay, and other media continue this expressive tradition. And it is an exacting art form. “What keeps me sculpting is the fact that I can’t master it,” says Texas sculptor Rick Jackson, who has been creating western images in bronze for the past two decades. New Mexico sculptor Vic Payne, who is profiled in this issue, is enthralled with the ability to re-create the Old West in sculptural detail. “You want to see what it was really like, and definitely the easiest way to see it is to make it in bronze,” he says of such images as a cowboy flying out of the saddle and holding on to the reins for dear life or weary trail riders crossing a stream. The sculpture in this issue offers something for everyone, from realistic cowboys to dancing rabbits, abstracted figures, sleek birds of prey, and flying forms. We also preview the year’s biggest sculpture event: the Sculpture in the Park and Loveland Sculpture Invitational shows held August 12-13 in Loveland, CO.
In addition to sculpture, this issue also features paintings of the western horizon by California artist William Glen Crooks, still lifes by Utah painter David Dornan, florals by Coloradoan Lu Haskew, and a survey of the career of historic painter Martin Johnson Heade in conjunction with a major exhibition on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Finally, we tour the Santa Fe home of Chuck and Jan Rosenak, whose passion for folk art should inspire any collector to get out and go exploring.
Featured in July 2000