Dancing in the Snow: Sculptors seek winter’s warmth
Tuesday, November 20th, 2012A sculptor deals directly with the elements, from clay to precious metals to the fire that gives them form, and her finished work will eternally interact with them. When winter’s chill creeps up Canyon Road, familiar sculptures are transformed by sequins of frost or snowy white coats.
The art in our sculpture garden may seem at rest in the cool air, but the sculptors in our stable are hardly hibernating. For our “Holiday Aglow” show, they’ve wielded the elements to imbue a frigid season with the holiday warmth we feel in our hearts.
Chris Turri
Story Totem Moon Guide – Chris Turri
New Mexico artist Chris Turri uses the motifs of Native cultures to help keep their legends alive. The storyteller creates totems and masks, revealing a way of life that is closely tied to nature in symbolism and material.
“I love to work with metal,” says Chris. “I like how it changes with the seasons, how it gets better with age and weather.”
Chris uses patinas on steel and copper to mirror nature’s brilliance, giving abstracted faces and figures the rusty red tone of New Mexico clay or the bright glow of a turquoise stone. He’s sure to spin resilient color into his works, even in the dead of winter.
Suzanne Donazetti
Ocean Star- Suzanne Donazetti
Suzanne Donazetti lives in Maryland, but her art plays out on a considerably bumpier landscape. After dabbling in many mediums, she developed a unique process of painting and weaving copper and has been constructing billowing, distorted grids ever since. Though they look like the stuff of dreams, these abstract color landscapes are inspired by real-world observation.
“My vision is to communicate with color, through the refractive lens of weaving, brief moments of light in the natural environment,” Suzanne says.
The sculptor always amazes with her rose-colored, kaleidoscopic glasses. Can you imagine her dazzling interpretation of a winter flurry?
Josiane Childers and Justin West
Spectrum VI- Childers-West
Josiane Childers and Justin West are a husband and wife team who combined their mediums and created something inseparable. She’s a painter and he’s a metalworker with a fascination for old cars and trucks.
The duo’s steel and plexiglass works skirt the line between sculpture and painting. Abstract color fields bend outward from the wall, forcing the viewer to move about the gallery in order to catch every angle. It’s a dynamic experience that echoes their philosophy about their materials.
Justin is inspired by steel’s strength and versatility, and the fact that each piece was “forged of fire from the center of the earth.” If you come to the reception, make sure to linger in the glow of Josiane and Justin’s works, prepared in our planet’s core and finished at their family hearthside.
Laurel Peterson Gregory
Lindy Lo – Laurel Peterson Gregory
Laurel Peterson Gregory is a sculptor with a very lively process. She starts by carefully studying a particular dance and matching it with a favorite animal, sketching out beautifully symmetrical movements that are enhanced by her subjects’ angular bodies. Bulls waltz, beagles “bump”, a pair of scotties engages in a graceful ballet lift and a horse jumps for joy. Laurel captures these moments in bronze and colors them with rich patinas.
Though Laurel focuses mostly on fauna in her work, the flora that surrounds her is just as important to her creative process. She tends ten large gardens that encircle her home outside Denver, which is a full-time job in itself. While she might be harvesting the very last of her fall crop, there’s no end to this artist’s inspiration.
Waxlander’s “Holiday Aglow” show features new work from all of Waxlander’s artists. Come explore dynamic sculpture and painted winter wonderlands starting November 20. The artists’ reception is Friday, November 23 from 5-7 pm.
If purchasing a piece off the blog, mention that you found the piece on the blog and get a special discount!
