arrow

Prudence Quam /Bear Fetish The Zuni Indians of New Mexico are well known for carving natural stone into animal figures called fetishes. A fetish is believed to bring good luck and symbolic power that will protect its’ owner. Traditional subjects include bears, bison, birds, frogs, turtles, corn maidens and more. Artists also carve wild and domestic animals from other geographic regions. Of “protective and healing” animals, the bear is the most important. There are also “protective and hunting” animals. The carving tradition is passed down through Zuni families. Prudence Quam is from a famous carving family and has her own beautiful and recognizable style. 		Prudence Quam
Whitmore Boogaerts arrow

Whitmore Boogaerts/ Steel Garden Sculpture

Whitmore has been working as a full time artist since 1994. With a lifetime background in the arts (his parents were both architects) and a degree in civil engineering, his welded steel garden sculptures were a natural progression. The overall goal of the work is to find a way to let nature itself flow through and help design the actual piece. The finished work demonstrates structure and balance with a touch of whimsy.
arrow

Charles Gibbs/Copper Bird
Imagine you have encountered a strange creature that begs closer investigation. You discover it is fashioned from metal parts, wires and tubes and objects that look like junk. The creature is even more mysterious now, an intricate web of metal which comes together in a way you have never seen before. The longer you stare and dissect the creature with your eyes, the more satisfied its creator, Charles Gibbs, is likely to be.

"From a very early age I was interested in metalworking, like since I was five years old," recalls the self-taught metal sculptor. It just held up a great fascination with me. I remember as a young child seeing a Native American silversmith at a museum in San Francisco and I was just entranced by what this guy was doing."
 sculpture
His obsessions made Gibbs different from all the other kids. "I think my earliest aspiration of life was to be a blacksmith, rather than a baseball player or something like that! I was a little unusual in that respect! Even as a very young child, my father had a workshop and lots of tools in it and I started off hammering little weapons and thing out of nails and bits of wire - you know, just pounding away with hammer on anvil, shaping things. Just loved the whole process."
Arlene Fins

 arrow

Arlene Fins/The Dancer

The shelves in Arlene Fins' studio are populated with a faceless crowd. Posed seated or standing tall and proud, each temporary figure waits for its chosen day when Fins will rework its chocolate brown clay body into a finished sculpture. Arlene frequently works on several figures at a time, alternating as the mood strikes, enjoying both the feel of the evolving sculpture under her fingertips and the unexpected turn her life as an artist has taken.

A resident of Acton, Massachusetts, Arlene has worked for most of her career as an illustrator and graphic artist. She had been playing with the idea of writing and illustrating her own children's book when a family trip to the beach a few years ago changed everything. "I was out at the beach with my family and I just started sculpting figures in the sand," Fins said. "I got lost. I didn't notice a crowd had gathered to watch me build a whole person, lying there in the sand. And I knew I had found what I was meant to do. I love every step of the process of developing a three dimensional sculpture. Before, in a drawing, I would spend hours and hours just trying to get a detail right and it was excruciating. Sculpting just came so naturally to me. Instead of showing the contour of an arm by using shading and light, all I have to do now is go around and work it."

Go back to   up  top of page






| Homepage | Ceramics | Glass | Jewelry | Wood | Fiber | Sculpture | Events | Email us

All Content and Artwork Copyright 2000/Handworks Gallery of American Crafts.
Site Designed by Gardiner Design