Jezebel Gallery » Sculpture » Elder Jones
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| Canyon Planter #1 | Eve #2 | Fat Rattlesnake Planter |
Pedestal #7 | Red Western Planter |
Tall Sedona Planter |
In my childhood I was drawn to nature. The allure of variety, elegance and mystery captured my attention. As I matured mechanistic science was the requisite tool that promised to reveal "how." I was encouraged by family and society to follow this path of certainty and stability. I enthusiastically enjoyed seeking the "how" of anything and everything. The history and state of manifestation. The His-story; in the measurable and quantifiable facets of creation. God. It was a lot but not enough.
Ever restless within me was an innate longing for the eternal quest and the question of "why." The perpetual wonder for the mystery. The Miss-story in the immeasurable qualites in creation. Goddess. The yin to the yang of the Tao. Good. WIth honor for science and reverence for art: left brain & right brain, analytical & conceptual, masculine & feminine, rock & roll. Divinity seeking humanity seeking divinity.
By grace it turns out that in the year 2005, at 57 years old, I am comfortably engrossed in nature, spirit and the creative process. Like many that pursue their life as an independent artist, especially outside academia, it is a struggle to maintain oneselfy financially. Being single for the past twenty years with no children and owning my own home/studio has gradually afforded me the time to do creative work consistently. Although I developed and produced a large number of mail art and frottage pieces from the late 70's to the mid 90's I was never able to gain a significant opening that would further the work. I had been exploring concrete since the mid 80's and by the early 1990's my focus turned entirely to medium of wet carved concrete.
My pieces were functional at first, mostly stepping stones and planters. I had some success in the late 1980's in California but very little back home in Tennessee. It was in 1999, after I joined the Tennessee Association of Craft Artist and had a booth at the Tennessee Craft Fair in Nashville, that my income from concrete became my primary source of income. Although the work is physically hard, it has grown more fulfilling because my passion is the means by which I am sustained and nurtered. This is enough but I want and strive to keep it ever fresh and unfolding.
What I discovered after making one thing and then another over a number of years was that my skill and technique had become refined to the point where I could make whatever I imagined. Whit this, variation in style became commonplace. The large pieces were very engaging and primarily a challenge in execution as well as design. The steps and pots, which I now consider as sketches, keep me active with the medium and provide unique, affordable pieces for certain income. The best thing that has happened to me for exposure is being featured in the two books by Sherrie Warner Hunter. "Creating with Concrete," 2001 and "Creating Concrete Ornaments for the Garden," 2005 by Lark-Sterling Books. This has established me as "the guy" concerning the technique of wet carved concrete.
For the past few years I have been making sculpture. Mostly figurative. There have been sweet spots all along the way but the more I enter this area the more I feel the sweetest part of the creative dance. Looking back I see how my developed craft has unfolded and metamorphosed into aesthetic art. Here is where the best happens. The image glimpses. Intuitive flow. Humbling mistakes. Expression.