Art Process
For a deeper understanding of my work, I have answered some questions about my art process.
Your technique in creating bronze or stone begins with a ceramic maquette at your studio. But you also work with foundries. As an overview, how do the process and collaboration work?
Making ceramic models using stoneware white clay that can fire to a temperature of 1000 degrees Celsius in a kiln is the first phase of my creative process. This ensures that models are hard enough to withstand transportation to a foundry or a stone carving studio for the second phase. The studios use the latest 3D technology to copy and enlarge the original model that the collector has decided to commission. This involves using 3D scanners, 3D software, and 3D printing for direct casting in bronze. In the case of a stone carving studio, they may make use of sculpting, machining, pneumatic tools, and even computerized carving tools. In the case of computerized tools, they are allowed to go as far as making a rough stone cut which is then finished by hand. In my Artist Proof sculptures, I am involved with the studios at every step of the sculpture commission.
Your technique in creating bronze or stone begins with a ceramic maquette at your studio. But you also work with foundries. As an overview, how do the process and collaboration work?
Making ceramic models using stoneware white clay that can fire to a temperature of 1000 degrees Celsius in a kiln is the first phase of my creative process. This ensures that models are hard enough to withstand transportation to a foundry or a stone carving studio for the second phase. The studios use the latest 3D technology to copy and enlarge the original model that the collector has decided to commission. This involves using 3D scanners, 3D software, and 3D printing for direct casting in bronze. In the case of a stone carving studio, they may make use of sculpting, machining, pneumatic tools, and even computerized carving tools. In the case of computerized tools, they are allowed to go as far as making a rough stone cut which is then finished by hand. In my Artist Proof sculptures, I am involved with the studios at every step of the sculpture commission.
"Original art comes from an original process." – Flavius Pisapia
Do you begin work by sketching a concept, or a basic form? And connected with that, when is a sculpture finished?
I will often start a new sculpture series when I reach a peak of what I call creative restlessness, a dissatisfaction with what is, with what exists around me as three-dimensional objects and art. I like to travel and can create anywhere - in an art studio, on a terrace or balcony, in nature, or a city. My preferred material is clay. I find clay to be easy and fast to work with, offering the least resistance. When I am ready I start a sculpture with a hand-formed sphere. All forms can be manifested from a sphere. If I feel the need to explore more straight planes and edges, I transform the sphere accordingly. Apart from the sphere, I also use the saddle plane and the double-bent plane. All these planes are present everywhere in nature in all living things. My sculptures are consciously connected to life forces and reflect only living qualities.
The question, "when is a sculpture finished?" has at least two answers, depending on whose perspective we are talking about. When I begin forming a sculpture, I know that the finished sculpture is already within it. In the creative process, I can often energetically sense the potential in a germinal beginning and works to unfold it. In working on a new form, I lead with the logic of each form and stay with it in an empathic way until I find it cannot go any further. From the viewer's perspective, each interaction reveals something different, continuing the creative process. What is perceived as a sculpture is in essence a doorway to look at the physical world differently. I believe that, for the viewer, a sculpture is never finished. It potentially evolves and enriches the four-dimensional inner space.
I will often start a new sculpture series when I reach a peak of what I call creative restlessness, a dissatisfaction with what is, with what exists around me as three-dimensional objects and art. I like to travel and can create anywhere - in an art studio, on a terrace or balcony, in nature, or a city. My preferred material is clay. I find clay to be easy and fast to work with, offering the least resistance. When I am ready I start a sculpture with a hand-formed sphere. All forms can be manifested from a sphere. If I feel the need to explore more straight planes and edges, I transform the sphere accordingly. Apart from the sphere, I also use the saddle plane and the double-bent plane. All these planes are present everywhere in nature in all living things. My sculptures are consciously connected to life forces and reflect only living qualities.
The question, "when is a sculpture finished?" has at least two answers, depending on whose perspective we are talking about. When I begin forming a sculpture, I know that the finished sculpture is already within it. In the creative process, I can often energetically sense the potential in a germinal beginning and works to unfold it. In working on a new form, I lead with the logic of each form and stay with it in an empathic way until I find it cannot go any further. From the viewer's perspective, each interaction reveals something different, continuing the creative process. What is perceived as a sculpture is in essence a doorway to look at the physical world differently. I believe that, for the viewer, a sculpture is never finished. It potentially evolves and enriches the four-dimensional inner space.
"Often the hands grasp more quickly than the head." – Hans Arp
Your abstract works are very animated and full of movement. Can you tell us about bronze and other materials you use and the energy you bring to them?
I try to be mentally ready, inwardly centered, and feel physically grounded before creating. Clay or stone is an inert piece of matter which my imaginative thinking, through an artistic process, organizes and transforms into a recognizable reality, into its own living reality.
When Michelangelo looked at a block of marble, he saw a form in it. That form is approached over a period of time; in a way, it already exists in the future. My imaginative thinking keeps the image of the form alive in my mind as I work towards it in the present. Once the form has been manifested in material, I observe it for a few days or even weeks to grasp the essence of what has found manifestation through my action. The essence of the form is also its concept. This thinking observation uses a different sense of time, a "past", rather than future, time, and it is also the point at which I name the piece.
I try to be mentally ready, inwardly centered, and feel physically grounded before creating. Clay or stone is an inert piece of matter which my imaginative thinking, through an artistic process, organizes and transforms into a recognizable reality, into its own living reality.
When Michelangelo looked at a block of marble, he saw a form in it. That form is approached over a period of time; in a way, it already exists in the future. My imaginative thinking keeps the image of the form alive in my mind as I work towards it in the present. Once the form has been manifested in material, I observe it for a few days or even weeks to grasp the essence of what has found manifestation through my action. The essence of the form is also its concept. This thinking observation uses a different sense of time, a "past", rather than future, time, and it is also the point at which I name the piece.
"To see far is one thing, going there is another." – Constantin Brancusi
Does creating by hand help you give expression to this living reality of the sculpture?
Yes, the hands have the particular ability of manifesting something new into the world. They are so integrated in an artist, as an immediate means to experience the material, easily manipulate it, and transform it, that their role in a creative work cannot truly be deferred to a third party, either another person, or technology such as a 3D software.
This is especially true when working with clay, which I always use in the form development phase. Harder materials need specific tools to overcome their resistance and in that situation, the hands are supplemented. For my forms, direct contact is an essential part of the creative process.
I'm interested in creating works imbued with the qualities of life and movement. Sculpture being primarily made of inert materials needs inherent movement to come alive as something more than a physical object. The sculptural elements I use are the living building blocks of my sculptures. Goethe discovered the leaf is present in a transformed way in all the plants' forms. But only in animals and humans, the double-bent plane first found in the leaf becomes the possibility for movement. There are three important aspects I look for in my work: life (energy), movement (feeling), and gesture (personality).
This brings sculpture the possibility of expressing through its form that which animates, moves, and gives purpose. The artwork that results from this process has a presence and lively personality that always surprises me.
Yes, the hands have the particular ability of manifesting something new into the world. They are so integrated in an artist, as an immediate means to experience the material, easily manipulate it, and transform it, that their role in a creative work cannot truly be deferred to a third party, either another person, or technology such as a 3D software.
This is especially true when working with clay, which I always use in the form development phase. Harder materials need specific tools to overcome their resistance and in that situation, the hands are supplemented. For my forms, direct contact is an essential part of the creative process.
I'm interested in creating works imbued with the qualities of life and movement. Sculpture being primarily made of inert materials needs inherent movement to come alive as something more than a physical object. The sculptural elements I use are the living building blocks of my sculptures. Goethe discovered the leaf is present in a transformed way in all the plants' forms. But only in animals and humans, the double-bent plane first found in the leaf becomes the possibility for movement. There are three important aspects I look for in my work: life (energy), movement (feeling), and gesture (personality).
This brings sculpture the possibility of expressing through its form that which animates, moves, and gives purpose. The artwork that results from this process has a presence and lively personality that always surprises me.
"Personality is everything in art and poetry." – J. W. von Goethe
Can you elaborate on the aesthetic feeling in your work?
I am looking for sculptures with thriving energy, beauty, and a great personality. Sculptures can radiate these qualities in the environment they are placed in and have a positive contribution to the lives of those enjoying them. When working I may note opposites such as open-close, light-heavy, symmetrical-asymmetrical, free-unfree, and give them names. I am aware of the negative possibility but I emphasize the positive one in each pair of qualities I've identified. The positive qualities and attributes are more connected to what lives than to what is withering and dying. I would say the polarities of feelings converge in a search for beauty in every form and movement, both as sculptural qualities but also as feelings. With each sculpture I develop my aesthetic feeling for balance, levity, beauty, lightness, openness, expansion, and so on.
I am looking for sculptures with thriving energy, beauty, and a great personality. Sculptures can radiate these qualities in the environment they are placed in and have a positive contribution to the lives of those enjoying them. When working I may note opposites such as open-close, light-heavy, symmetrical-asymmetrical, free-unfree, and give them names. I am aware of the negative possibility but I emphasize the positive one in each pair of qualities I've identified. The positive qualities and attributes are more connected to what lives than to what is withering and dying. I would say the polarities of feelings converge in a search for beauty in every form and movement, both as sculptural qualities but also as feelings. With each sculpture I develop my aesthetic feeling for balance, levity, beauty, lightness, openness, expansion, and so on.
"Freedom is the aim of art, therefore art for me is the science of freedom." – Joseph Beuys
Your works are often part of a series with a thematic title. What part does it play in your process?
In every creative period, there are specific forms I find inspiring to explore and manifest through my creative process. Sometimes a particular theme emerges and becomes of interest to me. Every series is made of at least three to twelve individual works. This allows for the metamorphic "red thread" uniting them to express itself in each form leaving behind a distinct gesture in time and space.
Would you like to tell us more about titling your work?
In my artistic process, I intentionally leave space for discovery and surprise. Towards the last stages of a sculpture, I may already have an intuition of the sculpture's essence. I ask myself questions relating to the sculpture's physical, life, feeling, and gesture attributes. I also place myself imaginatively and empathically in the sculpture. I ask myself: What do I see? What is its life-energy? How does it feel? What gesture does it have? This is a retrospective process of getting to know what has gradually emerged. After observing and reflecting the outer and the innermost aspects of the sculpture, the name is gradually discovered. This can feel like a real Aha! moment.
In every creative period, there are specific forms I find inspiring to explore and manifest through my creative process. Sometimes a particular theme emerges and becomes of interest to me. Every series is made of at least three to twelve individual works. This allows for the metamorphic "red thread" uniting them to express itself in each form leaving behind a distinct gesture in time and space.
Would you like to tell us more about titling your work?
In my artistic process, I intentionally leave space for discovery and surprise. Towards the last stages of a sculpture, I may already have an intuition of the sculpture's essence. I ask myself questions relating to the sculpture's physical, life, feeling, and gesture attributes. I also place myself imaginatively and empathically in the sculpture. I ask myself: What do I see? What is its life-energy? How does it feel? What gesture does it have? This is a retrospective process of getting to know what has gradually emerged. After observing and reflecting the outer and the innermost aspects of the sculpture, the name is gradually discovered. This can feel like a real Aha! moment.
"All genuine art seeks the spirit." – Rudolf Steiner
