Labor Day Weekend
Jeffrey Wiener

It was late in the afternoon on the last day of the Labor Day Weekend, I was perusing the artisan’s booths at the New Paltz Arts and Crafts Fair with my family. It was a nice pause to a hectic weekend, and a reflective moment after such an arduous summer. We have all been working harder. The sun was setting behind the mountains, the fair was winding down, and many of the artists seemed eager to break down their tents and head home.

I was looking for figurative artists, as usual. Sometimes you can find them behind the crafts that they sell. I have an empathy for the talented artists who also have an entrepreneurial spirit in their hearts. Many of them can be found working the arts and crafts festivals throughout the summer, regardless of the economy, all the while producing marvelous bodies of figurative works.

It’s important to look outside the big cities for our inspirations. Here’s a sampling of the Figurative Arts I found up in the Catskill Mountains this weekend. I’ll bring you more of the works of these artists later this month on TheGreatNude.tv, so SUBSCRIBE to receive a notice about it.

Peter Robinson-Smith creates remarkable, 3-dimensional sculptures from metal wire.

Diane Kline's quick charcoal sketches are fluid and energetic.

Helen Hosking's small statues are jewel-like and peaceful.

New York Academy of Art
3rd Annual Summer Exhibition
June 3rd – August 2nd, 2009
Review by Jeffrey Wiener

On a hot summer night, TheGreatNude heads downtown to attend the opening reception for the New York Academy of Art’s 3rd Annual Summer Exhibition 2009. This exhibit features over a dozen “Great Nudes” amongst the 123 works produced by the teachers and students of one of the world’s best art schools.

The show is running now until August 2nd, and is a great place to spot new talent that will likely become well-known artists in the years ahead, so its definitely worth checking out.

To read the full article and to see more images, click here to subscribe.

Watermelon Smashers by David Pettibone

Lux by Jane Hamill

Little Inside by Simon Muehlaueusser

An iconic male figure in metal wire

Sometimes when looking through various art publications, I will find something which makes my heart race and I feel as if I have discovered someone new. It’s the aesthetic version of the Wow Factor. Of course in the case of Korean artist Seungmo Park, it’s only a discovery for me, as he has been exhibiting his aluminum wire sculptures for some time now throughout Asia.

There is a lot of spiritual meaning informing Parks work so I’ll try to be brief. Following a personal path through Zen Buddhism, and a fascination with Tibetan mandalas, he seeks out everyday images, generally creations of man, and even humankind itself. These in turn become subject matter which he sculpts and forms into a plastic resin maquette. Upon this armature he then begins the laborious process of coiling thin gleaming aluminum wire. The finished piece has a beauty which catches the light while at the same time resembling a resonating fingerprint. Plenty of metaphors to be had in that!

He likens this technique to creating a mandala in which artistic flow takes over thought in a meditative way. Unlike a mandala, these sculptures thankfully are not wiped away, and are allowed to have a presence of their own which we can appreciate. I say presence of their own because he is very aware of the illusion of the created world much the same way Magritte created the famous little painting of a pipe upon which he wrote “this is not a pipe”. I always took this as a bit of tongue and cheek humor, but Parks dedication to philosophical ideal is quite sincere.

More can be read at the link below, as I mentioned it’s an extensive but thoroughly fascinating look at an experience which had a profound effect on his life and the artwork he produces.

Subscribe to TheGreatNude.tv

Jeffrey Wiener here:

Last weekend, I had the chance to spend the weekend in Monticello, upstate New York, where my girlfriend’s family has a lovely cottage. I enjoyed the brisk fall weather, and watching the changing leaves fall. It was good to take a break from the grind of the studio back in NYC.

My girlfriend is a potter, among other things, and I had the chance to work with a large hunk of clay. While I had thrown a few pots as a kid – on my own Italian grandmother’s wheel – I’ve never seriously sculpted before, and was eager to challenge myself.

I worked with a large, silky hunk of China quality clay. Not knowing how to begin, I simply imagined a woman’s truncated torso inside, and began to try to shape the clay into this woman’s figure that I held in my mind.

The first thing I discovered was how naturally I took to the process. Freed from a disciplined approach, I was able to simply push and pull the clay as instinct dictated. Once I got a handle on the physical qualities of this new medium, I was able to focus on physically creating the image I had in my head. This was exhilarating, and I felt energized by the process. It’s the most tactile experience I could think of apart from the experience of touching another person. Certainly more tactile than drawing onto a piece of paper with a small wooden stick filled with lead.

As the clay began to take the shape of the woman, I was drawn deeper into the dynamic process flowing through my hands. I realized that I was channeling a personality that I was creating (I was working without a model) and that this was becoming a strangely intimate experience. Working with my hands, I felt much more connected to the body I was creating. Perhaps the ability to continually manipulate the clay, to reshape the figure until satisfied, to rotate the human form at will, gave me a tactile memory of the subject, much as lovers know each other physically. In any case, I was in better control the creative process and I could easily see a clear path to a tangible end.

I’ve left the figure in a rough form on it’s surface. I used my fingers to shape the textures and you can still see my fingerprints. When this dries, I’m planning to sand this down to a smooth finish. This clay dries to a bone white color, and I’m hoping to get a marble texture to the finished statue.

What do you think?

Subscribe to TheGreatNude.tv

My First Sculpture: Female Torso