Granite, serpentine. 1983. 7" with base. Private Collection.
On one level, this form is simply what happened when I experimented with a way of grinding stone that was new to me.
The sculpture happened without my thinking at all about it in representational or symbolic terms. It was just a shape.
Mounted as I chose to mount it, however, it began to conjure images in my imagination.
Sometimes I saw a bird.
Usually it was a human figure expressing human thoughts and feelings and moving human motions.
Over time, I came to see the figure as isolated by pride on a small island, out of contact with other humans out of arrogance or rejection
Obviously, that was projection on my part, because the thing is only a couple of rocks, a scrap of steel, and a dab of glue.
But that’s how it happened, and I think that’s how it works.
Photos by Lee Gass.
On one level, this form is simply what happened when I experimented with a way of grinding stone that was new to me.
The sculpture happened without my thinking at all about it in representational or symbolic terms. It was just a shape.
Mounted as I chose to mount it, however, it began to conjure images in my imagination.
Sometimes I saw a bird.
Usually it was a human figure expressing human thoughts and feelings and moving human motions.
Over time, I came to see the figure as isolated by pride on a small island, out of contact with other humans out of arrogance or rejection
Obviously, that was projection on my part, because the thing is only a couple of rocks, a scrap of steel, and a dab of glue.
But that’s how it happened, and I think that’s how it works.
Photos by Lee Gass.
