(photo from http://www.botanicgardens.org/pageinpage/wicksculpturesmain2006.cfm)You know, sometimes I think I’m still a teenager, the way I get crushes on sculptures and their stories. It seems as if I’m always falling in love with a piece, a sculptor, the story of a piece, concepts, whatever. And my crushes aren’t puppy love. They’re full-blown combos of lust and passion. I am dizzy for days when I discover something I love.
Which leads me into a confession from my days in Tucson. There was this guy, see, and he was a sculptor. A living sculptor. (Uh oh, here comes the juicy part…) and he, to this day, is the closest thing to a god in the pantheon of sculptors I’ve ever found. And, no, I never even touched the dude, though I did get to interview him a coupla times (see artwell.com/features/archives/c-7-99.shtml).
His name is Robert Wick. His sculptures (which he describes as “The Union of Man and Earth”) are fusions of bronze, living plants and ancient truths. In short, they’re just exactly what I think art should be.
Take his Mexican Mask Walking Figure. He describes it this way; “Inspired by a thousand-year-old pre-Colombian work in which a grotesque head grew out of the lower jaw of a man. His eyes are closed. The creature’s eyes are open.
Although the original was a standing figure, it is changed into one with an Egyptian stride. It depicts the two sides to human nature.”
See what I mean?
Why did he choose to work with bronze in the first place? After all, it’s incredibly expensive, heavy and touch to do. He told me that when he first walked into the Louvre and saw the “Winged Victory” (of which, by the bye, I have a small copy in my very home), he was swept away by the fact that the piece had survived for millennia and that it was as close to immortal as art gets, the ultra “ars longa” jazz. (I know, I know, I know- it was in a zillion pieces when they found it, but the fact remains…)
He chooses plants that carry out the theme of the sculpture, either by geography or shape or whatever. The pieces aren’t, after all, just oversized planters even though the hollow centers carry water pipes that provide moisture to them…
So we’ve got this guy who’s entranced by man’s search for god, the immortality of earth and the fragility of life. Themes, bronze and plants. Get it?
He leaves me breathless. Like a smitten teenager....
He’s currently got a 26 piece show in the Denver Botanic Garden until October. http://www.botanicgardens.org/pageinpage/wicksculpturesmain2006.cfm See it!
