Homage to Helen
The painter Helen Frankenthaler had a friendship with Anthony Caro, and he suggested she come to my studio and try her hand at sculpture. I decided if Ms. Frankenthaler could stretch her vocabulary I would try painting on steel sculpture comprised of scrap and cut metal. This gave me freedom to compose with twisted and bent metal, cutting and bending, painting with my hands and house brush, rubbing over the hard steel surface in my abstract expressionist way, feeling and moving to jazz music like I felt she painted. This experience was so light and gestural, like the feeling I receive from moving my hands over the wax and adding careful details to the surface.
Size: Height 4′ 11″ x 4′ 2″ wide x 2’8″ deep – Composition steel.
Artist Statement
I have investigated sculpture and performance for the past 20 years. My work combines fabricated steel, cast bronze and iron elements with silk, wood, beeswax and fire. All of which are “poetic and graceful, intuitive and intimate much like a dance of the body” the movement of the iron on the paper and the artist. My work is inspired by organic forms, urban structures and hybrids of these forms. Each piece is a result of marks, gestures and multiple layers of decision making.
Sponsor: Nancy Dalwin, Pres. Cloverdale Arts Alliance
Photo by Jude Gibson
Call Janet @ 707-293-7426 for purchase information