One of my favorite things on vacation is browsing art galleries and looking for new ideas and inspiration. During my recent trip to Bend, Oregon, I visited Peterson Contemporary Art gallery.
Unusual sculptures attracted my eyes. I stood in front of each art piece, trying to figure out what kind of story the artist was trying to tell. I was perplexed, which usually means I will remember what I saw for a long time.
Does it happen to you?
Robin & John Gumaelius Sculptures
Robin and John Gumaelius are collaborating artists and husband and wife. Their ceramic sculptures marry themes & techniques to tell stories. Using Elizabethan collars, large heads, movable madrona arms, and richly colored glazes, the Gumaelius bring their imagination to life.
They incorporate steel, ceramic, and wood to create animated human and birdlike sculptures that are often comical or bizarre. Robin creates all the colorful ceramic surface imagery and complex decorative glazes. Then John takes over and adds the exquisite metal armatures that bring the sculptures to life.
“We build our birds and figures using clay slabs. When the pieces are leather hard, we paint them with underglazes. Then we carve through the painted surface into the white clay. Radio stories, history books, biking adventures, gardening notes, neighbors spied, strangers watched in stores and parks, and cars jangle together in our heads and come so freely to our fingers that when we see the pieces finished we are often delighted–as if we are not their creators; they just come to talk with us for a while and then leave again.”
These sculptures reminded me of Ieranimus Bosch’s paintings. However, the Bosch characters are stranger and even scarier sometimes. Bosch’s works immerse viewers in deception and false testimony, placing them in a world of illusion where nothing is as it seems.
In my mind, portraying hybrid animals, in this case, birdlike creatures relates to indirectly quoting the Netherlandish master. For example, Dalí and Joan Miró both viewed the work in person at the Prado and produced paintings that pay homage to Bosch’s work.
Although the birdlike characters of Robin and John Gumaelius seem more peaceful, I look into their eyes, and I wonder what do they think?
What do you see in these sculptures?
