Category Archives: Ceramics & Sculpture

Art made from ceramics that is sculptural, functional and decorative.

Tronies: Michelle Post at Da Vinci Art Alliance

Tronies: Michelle Post at Da Vinci Art Allianc

Michelle Post‘s show of carvings are unusual and beautiful, they look like cast sculptures but they are actually carved from styrofoam. The illusion of heaviness is ironic because of the texture on the outside. Some people think the busts are made from paper mache, the plinths are actually blocks of styrofoam. When the artist grabs a head to show the plinth it’s startling because they look so heavy but are as light as air. Michelle Post explained, “They’re in banged up beat up condition when I get them because they’re cast offs. And they can be in pretty deplorable shape. Gouges and hunks missing out of it but I like that. And I incorporate it into the piece.”

The sense of authenticity is uncanny. “Styrofoam is not normally a sculptural material, it is in the trade, however. Especially for enlargements like the MGM Grand lions out in Las Vegas. They’re cut in styrofoam and coated with material that’s very hard. The cost to have had those cast would have just been astronomical. There are companies now who take your maquette or your sculpture they scan it into a computer and then they have machines cut it out of a large block of foam. Now, you can do a lot of things with it afterward, you can mold it and cast it in bronze or aluminum or whatever or you can actually use the styrofoam.”

Tronies: Michelle Post at Da Vinci Art Alliance

“For me, I work into the foam directly but it can’t go outside right now. So, these ten pieces here, the heads, are the commission for the Grounds for Sculpture. It’s so great. It kind of grew from eight heads to ten heads. The Sculpture Foundation commissioned it, it’s going to be a permanent installation at the Grounds for Sculpture around the amphitheater. The amphitheater has all these stone seatings that go up this gentle incline and so these guys are going to flank all the stone seating. It’s like they’re watching what’s going on down in the amphitheater.”

“They will be cast in aluminum and painted in my style but not necessarily these colors because they’re going to be treated as a whole. All ten pieces are one piece. They’re just a little bigger than life size.” DoN asked how she was awarded the commission? “Well, that’s sort of a hard one because I’ve seen a lot of former atelier people that have commissions there so I said, ‘Hey, what about me?’ But, what I was doing before wasn’t good enough to be put outdoors. I actually met Mr. Johnson and showed him my work. I like showing him my work. And when he saw these, I had seven of these heads done, and he went just like, ‘Oh my God, this is exactly what I’m looking for!’ and I went, ‘No! Get out of here!'”

J. Seward Johnson II is the founder of Grounds for Sculpture near Trenton NJ, a large sculpture park and he is also a well known sculptor himself specializing in trompe l’oeil painted bronze statues. He said yes to Michelle Post‘s idea to fulfill his idea of contemporary sculpture of portrait busts without being antiquity style. “He calls the the Mucky Mucks with Bruno as the head Mucky Muck and all the others in a hierarchy.” The work will be installed at Grounds for Sculpture in late 2013 after being sent off to be cast. “This is starting to expand how I see these heads now that they’re being put into a narrative.”

Tronies: Michelle Post at Da Vinci Art Alliance

Sculptor Michelle Post explained to DoNArTNeWs the concept of her new work Post Industrial, a mixed media sculpture of a goat pulling a cart with a man, a woman and a blue dog. “The cart is actually a real cart, an antique back from the turn of the century (20th) and the goat is actually reminiscent of that time period. They did have goat carts. They would hook up the goat, put the kids in there because the kids were too tiny to do horse and buggy, so the goat was perfect. This piece came about because my husband says,’Michelle you’ve got that cart. You better do something with it.'”

“The heads were the perfect thing, I just piled a bunch of heads in there and do a goat which now is something different I’m bringing to these pieces. Before it would be just the heads. And the plinths which would be the bodies; the plinths become part of the sculpture so it’s not a pedestal piece. With the goat even the base becomes it’s little foot, if you will. The goat set a whole new set of things to figure out. I’m used to going vertical and goats are horizontal. With legs you can’t just put a big old body down, a plinth, and have it represent the body because, well, it’s different.”

Tronies: Michelle Post at Da Vinci Art Alliance

Referring to the busts Michelle is known for she explains, “These guys are done all in one shot and I’ll work on ten to twelve pieces at one time.” You should know the artist has a magnificent octogonal shaped studio on her property near Millville, NJ big enough to build the heroic sized sculptures. “And about ten of them will turn out OK, there’s going to be a couple that are rejects, it just happens that way. And when Post Industrial came around I thought to myself, ‘OK. I’m bringing in something else.’ I do the stand alone pieces but now it’s time to do something different. With the busts they actually get named afterwards, when I’m carving it’s what comes out.”

DoN noticed that there was more of a narrative than just the personality of the busts; the sculpture reminds him of William Faulkner’s book Light in August where the young girl travels in a cart across the country in search of the father of her unborn child. Michelle said, “My husband, Dave, makes up all sorts of stories about it like, ‘Why’s the dog riding in the cart? Shouldn’t he be running along side?’ And they all have names, this is Cuthbert J. Twillie. If you’re an old movie fan you will know who he is. Think of, ‘My Little Chickadee.’ This is Sadie Twillie in the back, she doesn’t like it back there and that is Blue. Blue Twillie. And the goat is Willie. Willie Twillie.”

Tronies: Michelle Post at Da Vinci Art Alliance ends this weekend, 10/28/2012 with a Halloween costume party in the gallery from 2:00 – 5:00pm. 704 Catharine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147.

Written and Photographed by DoN Brewer

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Ties That Bind, Seventh Annual Community Juried Art Show at Off the Wall Gallery

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Jose Rios, Clown Posse, pen and gouache, Ties That Bind, Seventh Annual Community Juried Art Show at Off the Wall Gallery

By the time Clown Posse was presented to the panel of jurors assembled at Off the Wall Gallery curator Jody Sweitzer‘s place on her sweet flat screen TV, they were ready for a jolt of color. In the first round, the jury looked at over 200 images by about 50 artists while artist statements were read explaining how the artwork relates to the theme Ties That Bind. It was a lot to take in, DoN knew many of the artists but lots of others were new to him and as each image was connected to a statement, the idea of what the best representation of theme could really be emerged. For the second round of viewing, renowned photographer Rick Wright joined Elizabeth J. McTear, Marlise M. Tkaczuk, Melissa Ezelle and DoN as we looked at them all once more, each scoring our favorites in different ways. And then we looked at them all again and began the process of elimination.

There was some disagreement with Jose Rios’, Clown Posse because the color looks so bold standing on it’s own on a monitor and what do clowns have to do with Ties That Bind anyway? Jose Rios is an art student at Oasis Arts and Education, he wants’s to “inspire hope in others and myself.” The jury agreed that clowns connect deeply with people on an emotional level, a common childhood thread of fun and fear, the naive primitivism and cartoon pop color of the painting is right on trend and when you see the artwork with the rest of the show, the piece speaks in a quieter voice. During the opening reception the artist sat in the booth under his painting and worked on drawings of super-heros.

The team sifted through images for several more hours, with breaks for strawberry rhubarb pie, and argued the merits of each piece, we had to narrow the selection down to a manageable number of artworks that would fit the limited wall space and DoN learned a good lesson. Presentation is key; art shows are juried looking at digital photos which make the images all the same size on the screen, make sure your photo is the best possible.

Alice Gonglewski, Apartment, popsicle sticks, fabric and acrylic paint, Ties That Bind, Seventh Annual Community Juried Art Show at Off the Wall Gallery, photo courtesy of OTW@DF

Alice Gonglewsk‘s artist statement accompanying the popsicle stick constructions that look like a drawing/sculpture hybrids is a poem which begins, “Organize the dreams and moments, find connections, find a true tribe…” A good tip if you’re stuck writing an artist statement is to remember you’re an artist and can say it with words in a poem. If you can bring a tear to the juries eye, go for it. The graphic pieces present themselves as drawings in space, floor plan-like, with simple forms and materials representing the complex setting of a life lived.

Carla Liguori, Bound, terra cotta and glaze, Ties That Bind, Seventh Annual Community Juried Art Show at Off the Wall Gallery, photo courtesy of OTW@DF

Bound took the “top” prize, there were different levels of adherence to the theme instead of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, but the small ceramic sculpture exemplified the concept on so many levels, mixing metaphors, exquisite detail and finish, and a strange dada-ist narrative that is hard to put in words, as if we’re aware of being yoked and thinking we’re one thing instead of another; each creature believes it resembles the other because it can’t see itself. The artist describes the relationship between the figures as, “tortuous”.

Russell Brodie, Berkley House, oil on pine, Ties That Bind, Seventh Annual Community Juried Art Show at Off the Wall Gallery, photo courtesy of OTW@DF

The image of Berkley House, oil on pine, by Russell Brodie, is about life sized, the paintings are small and very realistic. In the jurying process the paintings looked as big as the other works, the images all presented relatively the same aspect ratio to one another, and presented on the screen large it was hard to imagine them small. The artist says he “wants to draw the audience in.”

Nicole Giusti, The Soap Dish, photograph, Ties That Bind, Seventh Annual Community Juried Art Show at Off the Wall Gallery, photo courtesy of OTW@DF

DoN loves the fact that The Soap Dish was awarded most abstract interpretation of the theme. How can a photo be abstract? But in this case many of the artworks were impressionistic, not abstract per se, and Nicole Giusti‘s still life photo combined with the tense narrative of her strained relationship with her grandmother transformed ordinary soap into doppelgangers, simulacra and ghosts of unpleasant memories. The repeating patterns, pristine color fields and limited palette resonated the theme of uncomfortable ties to family that reads differently for each viewer.

Gene Renzi, American Flags for Sale, photograph, Ties That Bind, Seventh Annual Community Juried Art Show at Off the Wall Gallery, photo courtesy of OTW@DF

Stephen Millner, Air Support, mixed media collage, Ties That Bind, Seventh Annual Community Juried Art Show at Off the Wall Gallery, photo courtesy of OTW@DF

Stephen Millner‘s Air Support collage is poignant and direct to the point, ties to military people is special, enduring and hopeful. The cancelled air mail stamps speak of countless expressions of hope and love, military families send care packages of stuff soldiers can’t get in Afghanistan or even on military bases, DoN has two nephews who have been deployed to the wars, Kurt is in Iraq right now working as a contractor, Buddy is back on active duty and could deploy anywhere, anytime. Art that reflects military life touches DoN‘s heart, the ties of love and hope bound with anxiety and fear is potent.

Eli VandenBerg, Egg Beater, ink on paper, Ties That Bind, Seventh Annual Community Juried Art Show at Off the Wall Gallery, photo courtesy of OTW@DF

All of the jurors thought of their grandmothers when presented with Egg Beater, an exquisite ink drawing that is simple, descriptive and active. The image represents a tool that ties us to fond memories, the old fashioned kitchen utensil able to mentally transport us to a place in the past with cake batter and whipped cream. Even the angle of the egg beater hints at activity, actions and achieving goals.

Jena Serbu, detail from Crickets, diorama with marionette- style low-fire clay figures found wood construction by Dawn Smith, Ties That Bind, Seventh Annual Community Juried Art Show at Off the Wall Gallery, photo courtesy of OTW@DF

Crickets is especially interesting because the piece was made on spec. The artists submitted a proposal with drawings and samples of some completed elements of the sculpture, the artist statement dealt with marital discord, problems from the past and angst of modern life. So the artists took a chance the jury would give them the go ahead to complete the piece, the presentation of the idea was fulfilled exactly as proposed and is a powerful presence in the show.

Ties That Bind, Seventh Annual Community Juried Art Show at Off the Wall Gallery

Awarding the prizes was a surprisingly simple and satisfying exercise. Each juror picked their top three favorites in each category ranked in descending order, if two or more pieces were selected by the jurors the scores were added and the highest scores received an award – a cool tie-dye kit.

DoN was honored when Togo Travalia asked him to help jury the show, Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks has a long history of exceptional art shows. The Ties That Bind, Seventh Annual Community Juried Art Show is beautiful, sometimes challenging with a wide interpretation of a theme based on three simple words and what they mean to different artists. The ties that Off the Wall Gallery has to the Philadelphia arts community binds artists in a welcoming place, not afraid to take risks with art, challenge norms and raise the conversation to new levels when it comes to art interpretation and exhibition. Ties That Bind, Seventh Annual Community Juried Art Show at Off the Wall Gallery is on exhibit through August 3rd.

Written by DoN

Photographs courtesy of Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Frank’s Bar except where noted.