Sculptural Pod Form
This week, I started a small sculpture form in a piece of red oak from my in-studio wood pile. I keep meaning to reduce the size of the pile and the only way I can do that is to either convert it into forms ... or take it all to the shipping container, which is hard work.
I often pick up seed pods and dry curly leaves when out walking my dogs. The shapes and forms are inspiring, though sometimes difficult to conceptualise in a creative sense. Many pages of my working sketchbooks are also filled with doodlings of pod-like forms.
Most of the shapes I currently like would be better suited to making in clay ... or at least prototyping in clay ... and then rendering in wood. The vagrancies of wood as a sculptural medium tend to affect the final outcome very strongly ... size of available material, cracks and checks, internal flaws etc. Of course, some of these caveats also are wood's most endearing features.
This piece will most likely join my Works in Progress collection and perhaps get finished sometime.
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Comments (0) July 01, 2011
A photo from Jack Heywood, Port Douglas
Here is a b&w picture of "Dance me" captured during the "Destination Paradise" exhibition by Port Douglas playwright and artist, Jack Heywood. Jack made the image late one afternoon while the setting sun was streaming in the open side doors.
The Old Sugar Wharf venue was subject to natural lighting for the show and ambient levels changed dramatically through the day. During the late afternoons, the sunlight entering horizontally from the west made the sculpture 'glow' brightly with an almost surreal aura.
A number of people have since told me that one of the best places to view "Dance me" was from a passing boat ... due to the dramatic 'framing' of the sculpture in one of the adjacent vast doorways.
Comments (0) November 12, 2010
Dance me - Opening Night
My new sculpture "Dance me" went on show this week at the "Destination Paradise" exhibition in Port Douglas, Australia. "Destination Paradise" is part of the Go Troppo Port Douglas Arts Festival.
The work is an abstract figurative sculpture representing my interpretation of freedom as paradise - the freedom to dance like nobody's watching - to live like nobody cares.
The work has been very well received by visitors so far and I've gotten volumes of praise and positive comments. "Dance me" is on show for the rest of the week.
Comments (0) October 25, 2010
The freedom to dance like nobody's watching
Tranquillity rolls in ... displacing humid warmth with the languid calm of a tropical evening ... the mood shifts to chill. Gentle music wafts from somewhere ... flowing wine ... a deserted beach beckons for dance ... inhibitions cast off like clothing ... dance me.
"Dance me" is a larger than life abstract figurative sculpture by Bob Gilmour. The work is currently being shown in the "Destination Paradise" exhibition, part of Go Troppo ... a festival for the arts in Port Douglas (October 22 - 31, 2010).
As interpretation of the theme "Destination Paradise", the work is inspired by freedom ... in paradise ... to cast off inhibitions ... dance like nobody's watching.
The freedom to live uninhibited by the white lines of society ... this is paradise ... live like nobody cares.
"Dance me" is the curvaceous movement of life ... the raw emotion of the moment ... in paradise.
The gentle breeze swirls and twirls through the mangroves ... onto the beach ... dancers weave their bodies and entwine their souls ... casting their passion to the night.
Comments (0) October 23, 2010
Dance me - installation day
Today was the big day. The sculpture was dissasembled, packed in a million blankets, doonas and whatever else I could find to soften the bumps and bends of the one hour journey to Port Douglas.
In the middle of a monsoonal downpour, we left the studio and pulled up at the Old Sugar Wharf in Port Douglas ... completely unscathed. This set the mode for the rest of the install ... everything went like clockwork. "Dance me" reassembled like it just wanted to be there ... bathed in the light and glory of the moment.
Due to the large scale of the work compared with the rest of the catalog, I had arranged to install a few days after all the other artworks were brought into the venue. I was met by Sarah Goldfinch, the curator for the show, who had already a couple of contingent display locations in mind based on images I'd sent her.
It was a great day. With minimal people present, we were able to position the work so as to take advantage of natural light and the integral lighting of the building. The sculpture is set up in the middle of the display space and adjacent to a large doorway opening onto Dickson Inlet, above which the venue is located.
After about three trouble-free hours, "Dance me" was in position, cleaned down and ready for the show.
"Dance me" :: the freedom to live like nobody is watching ...
Comments (0) October 21, 2010