A Challenging Summer

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A Challenging Summer

It has been challenging these last three months for me to keep focus on what’s important when everything demands that value. Unfortunately creating new sculptue has taken a back seat. I have seemingly been in a constant state of “catch up” worked desperately to get my web sites back online. Additionally I tasked myself with setting them up for Ecommerce so that I would not have to depend on third party sites for sales.

I never quite got those sites to perfection before I had to deviate to entering my work in a couple of art competitions whose deadlines demanded I set aside what I was doing. But while in the middle completing applications my computer took a power surge from a power outage that blew out the motherboard forcing me to turn my attention to aquiring a replacement. I took the opportunity to upgrade to Windows 11 from 10 since Microsoft will soon no longer be supporting the former version in the near future. While in the middle of that Covid struck and though I was not severly sick, it the self-confinement did test my reserves. There’s more…. but you get the idea, so I’ll stop illuminating on my woes for now, and rather cut to the good news I would like to pass on.

When I went to the Starkweather Art Center in Romeo, Michigan this past week to pick up my entry in the 2024 Thumb Area Juried Art Exhibit, to my surprise and Delight I found that my entry – “Convergence”- had won 3rd place honors. This Just goes to show if you keep forehead down and on the grindstone eventually something good will come of it. Sometimes that something is just enough to keep you on your pathway… With a temporary smile even… Till next time.

Convergence – 3rd place winner at Thumb Area Art Exhibit 2024

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Jerry Ward

Still Posting Wood Sculpture

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Still Posting Wood Sculpture After All These Years

Artist in Wood ~ Jerry Ward ~
Artist in Wood ~ Jerry Ward ~

It’s not easy to be me. At any point in my life, I can honestly say I’d rather be creating my wood sculpture (Time spent with family and friends excluded). At least where work is concerned the work of creating something is like no other form of satisfaction. Still, my satisfaction depends on the rewards that come from selling it. Not so much the monetary rewards as the satisfaction that comes from the fact that people think enough of my art to buy it. To think that they take it home and give it a coveted spot in their home and display it for their enjoyment is for me a pleasure like no other. But to get it to people is a process, and that process is the most difficult to accomplish because it involves “exposure”. And that brings me to the crux of this post, and the fact I have spent the past three months getting my Website back online. A lot has changed since I built my first site back in 1994. Like EVERYTHING!! And because of a life transition, I have neglected it for almost ten years. Now there are many new ways to create sophisticated designs for more exciting ways to display graphics and therefore artwork, but they are far more difficult to construct and time-intensive to learn – and I’m not there yet. But at this point, as I come down to the spit and polish of the final stage of getting my site up to speed I have decided to go ahead and launch. I have come to the realization it will never be completely finished. It will no doubt be forever a work in progress so please bear with me through the times ahead. I am after all a “one-man-show”. And at any point, I’d rather be creating wood sculpture.

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Sublime Transitions Jerry Ward

Sublime Transitions – sculpture upate

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Sculpture by Jerry Ward
Sublime Transitions

My most recent sculpture to date is Sublime Transitions.  It is about the “leap of faith”.  A traversing of the known into the unknown for the possibility of bettering one’s current situation. To convey this “crossroads” visually, I have chosen to represent the concept in metaphor through the sublime change of state of a substance. This, of course, refers to the wondrous change that defies what seems to be the natural order of things. To pass to a gaseous form, from a solid, without turning to a liquid state. This phenomenon, of going directly from solid to a gas, is usually demonstrated with frozen carbon dioxide (dry ice),  What is generally not considered when witnessing this is, that once this has happened, it is not reversible. Understanding this irrevocable nature of the sublime state is quintessential to understanding the concept central to my sculpture “Sublime Transitions”.

The sculpture starts “firmly footed”, rooted, grounded in the known.  But on rising from that position the form struggles with the question at hand. It twists to and fro without a well-defined direction indicative of indecision and then continues it’s quest into the unknown as it forms a vaporous state in the shape of a hand reaching into the unknown.

Other views of this sculpture may be seen on this site by following this link—Sublime Transitions

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Sculpture by Jerry Ward

Sublime Transition – Sculpture Update

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Sculpture by Jerry Ward
Sculpture by Jerry Ward

The transitions in this sculpture have become delicate and tedious.  Working with wood grain takes pretty intense scrutiny in order to maintain strength integrity that will self-support the structure.  In other words, “you can’t always get what you want”   I mentioned earlier the “dissolve effect” I was reaching for in this piece.

The Process

I am working to reduce the volume of the work as it rises vertically in a gradual progression. It becomes exceedingly difficult at the top where the piece can become more fragile than glass. The imperative then is to have each splintering element receive support from its neighbors.  In short, I don’t have “free will” to go anywhere I want in shaping this piece.  I have to constantly make exceptions to my direction I would like to take, while acknowledging what the material can support.  A continual balancing act.  Yes, tedious is the right word.  Hopefully, the reward will be in how well I can achieve this effect in the end.

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Wood Sculpture by Jerry Ward

New Sculpture – Sculpture Update

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Wood Sculpture Jerry Ward

I have started the third in the five sculptures I intend to have ready for showing at the Krasl Art Fair On The Bluff, next month, July 9th and 10th.  The sculpture Sublime Transition (shown here) is just beginning to show the vertical transition of the sublime “change of state” from its solid base to becoming vaporized.  Right now as I work the piece to accomplish this impression, I look to find a balance in the volume where this occurs in equal amounts throughout the vertical rise.  I seek to impart in the viewer experience the impression that they are witnessing a dematerialization of the form.

The Process

I must work the entire piece throughout its length, up and down while constantly revolving it to ensure the impression is equal from all points of view.  Because the piece is so tall it will push back the optimal viewing distance to perhaps ten feet or more.  So when working on the piece I have to continually step away to that distance.  To not take this into account as I work through balancing the form would be to ignore the parallax distortion that occurs from working up close.  Once the form I am looking for is found I can begin the refinements that will make the piece spark.

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Wood Sculpture by Jerry Ward

Fourm Factor Finished – Sculpture Update

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Wood Sculpture by Jerry Ward
Wood Sculpture by Jerry Ward

After eight coats of polyurethane Fourm Factor is finally finished, has had its promo pictures taken, and is now published on this site at the link below..  I love the soft feel this form imparts and the motion of the line as the eye traverses through the complete 360 degrees of rotation.  It slumps in a relaxing posture giving a “peaceful easy feeling”,  seductive as a chase lounge to the weary.

Fourm Factor

Playing with the Minuscule

Fourm Factor’s title is a play on words using the form of a 4 as a factor in form.  The idea was to use the numeral and embellish on its essential shape to realize the beauty that is constantly around us in the most inconspicuous places.

 

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Fourm Factor- Sculpture Update

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Jerry ward with fourm factor

Fourm Factor is experiencing it’s final stage of finish.  This process involves repeated coats of polyurethane, which are scraped and sanded until they are flat.  Each coat fills tiny scratches or digs left over from the carving process until the a glass smooth surface is left.  Glass smooth, but not glossy like glass.  Too much gloss and reflection of light from the surface will interfere with being able to see the grain and color variations of the wood.  The objective is to achieve a “happy medium” of enough gloss is present to appreciate the form though it’s contours, but not so much as to blind the presence  the richness the wood itself has to offer.  Each coat has to dry for about 48 hr. before it can be sanded and worked. I call this phase “carving in the finish”  A  sculpture in this stage of development takes 8-10 days just to apply the finish.  This allows plenty of time to get started on another sculpture. Generally while working in my studio I find myself surrounded by about five sculptures in various stages of development, so that through the course of a day I am never without something that needs me.  With this piece nearly finished I expect to start another one today.  That makes this a especially exciting day.  About half of my day will be spent on the new creation, and the other half will go to finishing the others in their various stages of completion. As I move from one to the other in this fashion, I find my enthusiasm for completing each remains a full height, while still using my time to full efficiency.

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Work In Progress – Sculpture Update

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Sculpture “Resisting Destiny”

Wood Sculpture by Jerry Ward

My latest addition to the five new sculptures I intend to include in the upcoming show Krasl Art Fair on the Bluff next  month in St. Joseph, MI.  “Resisting Destiny”  represents inevitability.  The insurmountable,irrefutable fact that we cannot control or run from what is our destiny..  It is always there all around you ready to engulf you as a tidal wave does, to sweep you off your feet, taking control of what you only thought you had control over just a second ago.

The Making of  Resisting Destiny

For this sculpture I am using a piece of red oak shaping it to provide two distinct elements in a reflection way about to interact.  In developing the design for my concept  I work to incorporate the two elements in a way that they appear as  perpetually linked, as if one.  This continuity is important if  the image is to successfully convey the feeling of the elements spilling back on themselves in a tumbling fashion like a wave on the beach.  A sort of ordered chaos..

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In Progress – Sculpture Update

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Jerry Ward Fourm1

On the immediate horizon is my only outdoor art show this year, Krasl Art Fair on the Bluff, in St. Joseph, MI.   I want to present for this show  very best of what I have to offer and therefore am working diligently to the purpose.  Faced with the challenge of producing at least five new works in the next six weeks has left me charged with enthusiasm and I find myself working late into the evening in fervor. and anticipation of what I might accomplish. The piece shown in the image here is titled “Fourm Factor” specifically to interplay with the words four, form and factor as the image itself does.  Form being the factor,  while four serves as the backdrop.  The shape embellishes on the four enhancing it’s value as an abstract form.  It all works together nicely as a package.  The reality of four dissolves, and the form becomes the only thing of value.  The subtleties of volume and shape come to the forefront in a residual way.

Making Fourm Factor

This piece is being carved from spaulted elm and the spault has created some magnificent nuanced changes in coloring to leave a complex underlying variance of tonal splendor.  In order to make this richness of tone show in the piece, I must first  painstakingly level all surfaces, removing bumps and shallows left over from the use of the more aggressive tools used in the development stages.  To do this I use a tool, shown here, known as a cabinet scraper.  Just a flat metal blade with a very sharp edge.  It works similar to a wood plane in removing wood in minute curly shavings. Using this in a crisscross manner, pulling it over the wood, produces the desired result.  A smooth level surface.  Wood never disappoints, it just keeps giving and giving.

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