When is a sculpture like a painting?
Looking at Art:
In the 1950’s, Robert Rauschenberg started making “combines” which combined three dimensional objects with collages and paintings. He is credited with merging painting and sculpture to create a new art. Frank Stella made shaped canvases in the 1960’s, on which he painted abstract works. These innovators transformed art, tearing down the distinction between disciplines and leading the way for the new forms we see today. Do you ever wonder about the appropriate category for a work of art? If that is true, you are probably not alone, since the definition of art and media has expanded, overlapped and blurred.
Work in the Studio:
Traditional sculpture is not usually colorful. Its surfaces are often variations in neutral colors since the final work is often made of stone or bronze. My early clay sculptures were black, white or browns. The most recent work has more lively surfaces which are treated with a variety of textures and finished with patinas using layering of acrylic paint. I use the color to enhance the form and add to the personality of the piece.
Moving Canvas, Ceramic Sculpture, 12” x 8” x 7”
Moving Canvas is part of a series of works with colorful surfaces. While I was working on the patina using acrylic paint, I was very conscious of making a painting which would be integrated with the form of the sculpture, adding to the feeling of motion by accentuation edges.
