Medium:
Clay and cast in bronze, silver,
cement, forton and iron
Subject:
Figurative
Style:
Classical Contemporary, Baroque
Inspirations:
Greek classical bronzes, Magic
Realist writers, Children's Fairy
Tale Illustrators, Rodin
Notable Exhibitions:
The Smithsonian "American Art
Medal"
One person shows at:
Franconia College and Chapel Art
Center
Saint Anselm College: Group shows:
The Carving Studio, West Rutland
Vermont; The Art Gallery, UNH Durham
NH, The Currier Gallery of Art, New
England College Gallery, National
Sculpture Society, American Artists
Professional League, Allied Artists
of America, Pen & Brush, Federal
Reserve Bank, Boston
Memberships/Societies
National Sculpture Society
Maine Sculptors
Ogunquit Arts Association
The Carving Studio
Education:
Syracuse University
University of New Hampshire
MFA in Sculpture, Boston
University
Artist Statement:
My
personal artistic quest is to
become the best figure sculptor-
acquiring technical expertise and
anatomical knowledge- and fusing
that expertise with symbolist,
psychological, and archetypal
imagery. Like a goddess, she wishes
to create her own mysterious world,
peopled with alchemic creatures. An
arts proselytizer, she created
Sanctuary Arts, an art school in
Eliot Maine for adults to explore
their dreams and acquire the
technical skills to express their
ideas. A new bronze, iron and
aluminum foundry as an extension of
the school will help her get her own
pieces cast and out into the world.
Biography:
I have been sculpting the figure for
over thirty years and have been
earning a living as a sculptor for
the past fifteen years. I consider
this to be a remarkable feat. I
taught sculpture part time at
various institutions which included
the New Hampshire Institute of Art,
the College for Lifelong Learning,
the University of New Hampshire,
Horizons and The Carving Studio. I
worked as a commercial sculptor for
Hasbro Corporation making GI Joes;
for Kenner Toys creating soccer
player portraits and cast paper bas
releifs for Hill Design.
My commissions include a tidal pool
relief for the Seacoast Science
Center in Rye, New Hampshire; a
bronze fountain of Alexander the
Great and two companions; a six foot
bronze of an 1870's mill worker and
her son for the waterfront in
Nashua, New Hampshire; and an eight
foot by seven foot fire fighters
memorial for the Manchester, New
Hampshire Fire Department. I design
and carve traditional slate
tombstones and am now learning to
carve marble. Presently I am a
member of the National Sculpture
Association; the Ogunquit Artists
Collaborative; and The Carving
Studio. My personal fine arts work,
sculpted in clay or wax and usually
cast in bronze, is shown throughout
New England and the Eastern
seacoast. This work is very
intimate, especially since I work
solely with the human figure,
vulnerable in its= nudity and
glorious in its= beauty. I consider
myself to be a symbolist or magic
realist as I use the human form to
explore mystery, passion, and
spiritual and psychological truths.
In 1997 I purchased an 1861
Methodist Church in Eliot, Maine. I
am the proud director of “Sanctuary
Arts”, an artists’ residential and
studio community with a
“skill-based” art school and
gallery. This enables me to live,
teach and have my studio in an
active art environment. Recently I
completed a new sculpture studio to
enable me to work on large-scale
pieces and make bigger messes. I am
in the process of building a
“teaching” bronze art foundry.
Christopher Gowell
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