Art in the Family

My husband has always had a creative streak in him. Many years ago during our courtship, he drew some interesting and rather depressing pictures in pencil of dark branches in bleak landscapes (I hope this didn't reflect on our relationship at the time). However, art has never been a passion with him and he hasn't really pursued anything along those lines until recently.

When we visited Santa Fe last fall, both of us were enthralled with the art on display there. We spent two days (and could have been there more), just cruising Canyon Road gawking at some amazing and some so not amazing works of art. Abstract sculpture is one of the things we enjoy and there was plenty to enjoy there.

When we returned home, he decided, inspired by the works of Woods Davy, to make some sculpture of his own. Since then, he has created 4 sculpture and I, for one, am a fan. I believe it is very unusual and very attractive. Here's a slideshow of his work to date.

He will be including some smaller table top pieces shortly.

The sculpture are created from various sizes of veneer rock that we get at a local landscape materials company. We spend time going through large bins of rock looking for color, shape and unique features in the rock. The veneer rock is finished nicely so that it is smooth and shapely. The size rock he can use is limited by the size of his drill press and the weight of the finished work. He cannot make something so big that it requires a forklift to move. The pieces are assembled according to his artistic tastes and secured in such a way that they are very sturdy for indoor or outdoor use. The pedestals are challenging in that he has to keep the cost down, so they are comprised of some Lowes stock materials and then custom cut steel plates from a local metal fabricator.

We are submitting a joint application to one of the art shows here in our hometown for August. It's lightly juried, meaning that I think that you can generally be accepted as long as what you have is good. Unlike other shows I enter that are swamped with entries due to their popularity and your chances of being one of the chosen ones are less of a sure thing.

Our art, my abstract paintings and his sculpture are good - at least some people like them and in addition, I feel they compliment each other.

I feel very confident that Merle's sculpture will be well received and hopefully he will make a few sales.