ballpoint pen, marker, 1982
17” x 14”
Author: jono8100
Anyone tired?
As the semester ends, I seem to be taking pictures of exhausted sculptures.
Self-Portrait Age 15
modified ferrocement, pigment, 1988
24” x 15” x 12”
Daphne Reconsidering 2
modified ferrocement, fabric, 1988
100” x 84” x 60”
Daphne, many centuries after turning into a tree to escape Apollo’s amorous advances, begins to turn back into a woman. I love the insistence with which the shapes of human anatomy leap out from the natural world. I had been concerned with the absence of the human figure in contemporary sculpture, and related this to the Greek myth, to the possibility of Daphne regretting her ancient transformation and beginning to desire human form again.
photo by Paul Warchol
Daphne Reconsidering
1988
100” x 84” x 60”
Daphne, many centuries after turning into a tree to escape Apollo’s amorous advances, begins to turn back into a woman. I love the insistence with which the shapes of human anatomy leap out from the natural world. I had been concerned with the absence of the human figure in contemporary sculpture, and related this to the Greek myth, to the possibility of Daphne regretting her ancient transformation and beginning to desire human form again.
photo by Paul Warchol
Monument to Anonymous 2
modified ferrocement, 1984
31” x 23” x 33”
A monument to our most prolific sculptor, painter, composer and writer. As her/his name suggests, Anonymous is a mouse. Despite her/his absorption in work, one ear is tuned to our world. The other is focused on the page like a reading lamp. In its third public exhibition, in Central Park, NYC, Anonymous was installed on a pedestal with steps and was climbed on by over 10,000 people, not all of them children.
photo by Paul Warchol
Monument to Anonymous
modified ferrocement, 1984
31” x 23” x 33”
A monument to our most prolific sculptor, painter, composer and writer. As her/his name suggests, Anonymous is a mouse. Despite her/his absorption in work, one ear is tuned to our world. The other is focused on the page like a reading lamp. In its third public exhibition, in Central Park, NYC, Anonymous was installed on a pedestal with steps and was climbed on by over 10,000 people, not all of them children.
photo by Paul Warchol
The Couple (detail of The Wife)
modified plaster, 1990-95
49” x 11” x 11”
The Couple (detail of The Husband)
modified plaster, 1990-95
49” x 11” x 11”
Forbidden Fruit
Hydrocal cast, repeatable frieze, 1994
12” x 36” x 1”
The Couple
modified plaster, 1990-95
49” x 11” x 11”
The Invisible Struggle 2
marble, 1981
22” x 30” x 3”
The Invisible Struggle
marble, 1981
22” x 30” x 3”
Goddess 2
Hydrocal, paint, gold leaf (unique cast), 2010
15” x 11” x 10”
Goddess
Hydrocal, paint, gold leaf (unique cast), 2010
15” x 11” x 10”
Infant with Plume
bonded marble, edition of 20, 1996
10.75” x 8.5” x 1”
Meanwhile 2
cast resin, 2000
48“ x 27” x 14”
from the series Set of Sets, inspired by the resemblance between television sets and Roman tombs. In this Set, created for an installation at the DeCordova Museum & Sculpture Park in Lincoln, MA, an adult-sized boy’s head rests in a television as in a coffin.
Meanwhile
cast resin, 2000
48“ x 27” x 14”
from the series Set of Sets, inspired by the resemblance between television sets and Roman tombs. In this Set, created for an installation at the DeCordova Museum & Sculpture Park in Lincoln, MA, an adult-sized boy’s head rests in a television as in a coffin.
Silent Head 2
cast resin, concrete, 1998
48“ x 27” x 20”
from the series Set of Sets, inspired by the resemblance between television sets and Roman tombs. In this Set, created for a 2 year installation in the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum Sculpture Garden, the “talking head” of broadcast news confronts the viewer with the ancient gesture of silence and complicity.
Silent Head
cast resin, concrete, 1998
48“ x 27” x 20”
from the series Set of Sets, inspired by the resemblance between television sets and Roman tombs. In this Set, created for a 2 year installation in the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum Sculpture Garden, the “talking head” of broadcast news confronts the viewer with the ancient gesture of silence and complicity.
The Reach
Hydrocal cast, edition of 12, 1993
17” x 14” x 1”
Sweetness and Light
Hydrocal cast, charcoal, edition of 12, 1993
14” x 17” x 1”
Urn 3
bonded bronze, edition of 14, 2006
14” x 12” x 12”
The size and shape of a standard wastebasket, this Urn is covered with bas-relief images of hands crumpling up sheets of paper with varying gestures of frustration or nonchalance. Accomplished contemporary poets posed for each hand, including Dick Davis, Dana Gioia, R.S. Gwynn, Rachel Hadas, Charles Martin, F.D. Reeve, Marilyn Taylor, Catherine Tufariello and David Yezzi.
Urn 2
bonded bronze, edition of 14, 2006
14” x 12” x 12”
The size and shape of a standard wastebasket, this Urn is covered with bas-relief images of hands crumpling up sheets of paper with varying gestures of frustration or nonchalance. Accomplished contemporary poets posed for each hand, including Dick Davis, Dana Gioia, R.S. Gwynn, Rachel Hadas, Charles Martin, F.D. Reeve, Marilyn Taylor, Catherine Tufariello and David Yezzi
Urn
bonded bronze, edition of 14, 2006
14” x 12” x 12”
The size and shape of a standard wastebasket, this Urn is covered with bas-relief images of hands crumpling up sheets of paper with varying gestures of frustration or nonchalance. Accomplished contemporary poets posed for each hand, including Dick Davis, Dana Gioia, R.S. Gwynn, Rachel Hadas, Charles Martin, F.D. Reeve, Marilyn Taylor, Catherine Tufariello and David Yezzi
Cain
bonded bronze, gold leaf, 2008
26” x 26” x 2”
From a series of Renaissance-style bas-reliefs depicting Biblical characters in appropriate attitudes and situations that mimic the design of contemporary traffic signs. My intention is the opposite of Jasper Johns’s when he painted flags and maps; I want to take an image that has been stripped of narrative, character and any human particulars– a sign– and make it back into a symbol. Here, the Pedestrian Crossing becomes the wandering Cain.
Archaic Torso: Response to Random Murder II: July 7, 2005, London, 52 dead
34” x 17” x 12
bonded marble, 2006
Archaic Torso: Response to Random Murder II: July 7, 2005, London, 52 dead
34” x 17” x 12
bonded marble, 2006
September 11th: Response to Random Murder I: September 11, 2001 New York City, 2,996 dead
2001
bronze, edition of 9
18” x 10” x 12”
I made this allegorical figure of my city soon after the attack: a statue of a beautiful, strong, nude, maternal figure who could survive even this level of aggression. photo by John Bigelow Taylor
Ruth Bader Ginsburg 2
clay original, 2013, available in bronze or resin editions of 10
20” x 16” x 11”
Sculpted from life from sittings in 2010.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
clay original, 2013, available in bronze or resin editions of 10
20” x 16” x 11”
Sculpted from life from sittings in 2010.
Boston Women’s Memorial
2003, Commonwealth Ave. & Fairfield St. Boston, MA
bronze and granite, pavement 30’ diameter, figures 1.2 times life size
Commissioned for Boston’s historic Back Bay, commemorating Abigail Adams, Phillis Wheatley & Lucy Stone for their writing and their impact on society. The women have come down off their pedestals (as in this century women have, symbolically) and have deconstructed their traditional orientation in order to use their pedestals as work surfaces.
photo © Ricardo Barros.com
Boston Women’s Memorial 2
2003, Commonwealth Avenue & Fairfield Street, Boston, MA
bronze and granite, pavement 30’ diameter, figures 1.2 times life size
In order to represent Women, each figure embodies a different stage of life and a different creative temperament: Active, Contemplative and Imaginative.
Boston Women’s Memorial 3
2003, bronze,
63” x 65” x 42”
The three figures, each surrounded by the words for which she is famous, create a space in which a visitor may compare their ideas and actions to form a larger picture of the possibilities for and demands of a heroic female life.
Lucy Stone
Boston Women’s Memorial
2003
bronze
63” x 65” x 42”
Stone, renowned as a marvelous orator for abolition and women’s rights, represents Activism. She is portrayed in middle age, when she moved to Boston and founded The Woman’s Journal.
Lucy Stone 2
Boston Women’s Memorial
2003
bronze
63” x 65” x 42”
“Let woman’s sphere be bounded only by her capacity.”
Women’s Rights Convention, Worcester, MA 1851
Abigail Adams 2
Boston Women’s Memorial
2003
bronze
75” x 33” x 21”
“So rapid have been the changes, that the mind, though fleet in its progress, has been outstripped by them; and we are left like statues, gazing at what we can neither fathom nor comprehend.”
Letter to Mercy Otis Warren, 1807
Abigail Adams
Boston Women’s Memorial
2003
bronze
75” x 33” x 21”
Adams, presidential advisor and correspondent, represents old age and Contemplation. She is looking back over her life’s work and influence and perhaps challenging us to do the same.
Abigail Adams 3
Boston Women’s Memorial
2003
bronze
75” x 33” x 21”
“Remember that all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound be any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.”
Letter to John Adams, Mar. 31, 1776
Phillis Wheatley
Boston Women’s Memorial
2003
bronze
59” x 50” x 32
Wheatley, a slave in colonial Boston, was our first published African-American poet. Her pose is derived from the the only extant image of her, a profile portrait engraved for the frontispiece of her book of poetry.
Phillis Wheatley 2
Boston Women’s Memorial
2003
bronze
59” x 50” x 32
Here, Wheatley represents youth and Imagination. A stanza from her poem On Imagination is inscribed on her pedestal, ending with visionary imaginative power and freedom:
There in one view we grasp the mighty whole,
Or with new worlds amaze the unbounded soul.
Phillis Wheatley 3
Boston Women’s Memorial
2003
bronze
59” x 50” x 32
On her pedestal:
I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate
Was snatched from Afric’s fancy’d happy seat:
What pangs excruciating must molest,
What sorrows labour in my parent’s breast?
Steel’d was that soul and by no misery moved
That from a father seized his babe belov’d:
Such, such my case. And can I then but pray
Others may never feel tyrannic sway?
Alma Mater
Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind, Talladega, AL
bonded marble, bonded bronze, concrete 1997
90” x 96” x 96”
A commission from AIDB for their Helen Keller School for multi-handicapped children. The figure is signing the word “Sight” and reading in Braille the word “Hearing”. On her pedestal, which has steps in the back, are 5 bas-reliefs depicting the 5 senses. The monument is designed to be touched and climbed on.
Alma Mater (statue)
Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind, Talladega, AL
bonded marble, unique cast 1997
54” x 40” x 48”
The figure is signing the word “Sight” and reading in Braille the word “Hearing”
Alma Mater (detail)
Alma Mater (detail: Touch)
Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind, Talladega, AL
bonded bronze, unique cast, 1996
24” x 36” x 3”
From a series of the Five Senses for the pedestal of Alma Mater: designed to be touched and “read” by touch, the sculpted hands are life size and almost full-round, and the background texture is made with thumbprints.
Alma Mater (detail: Sight)
Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind, Talladega, AL
bonded bronze, unique cast, 1997
each: 24” x 36” x 3”
From a series of the Five Senses for the pedestal of Alma Mater: although wind, sun and cloud-shadows can be felt on the skin, the moon must be seen.
Alma Mater (detail: Hearing)
Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind, Talladega, AL
bonded bronze, unique cast, 1997
24” x 36” x 3”
From a series of the Five Senses for the pedestal of Alma Mater: portraits of students in the AIDB Helen Keller School Choir.
Memorial to Countee Cullen 4
1995
cast polymer cement
72” x 54” x 26
Dead men alone are satiate;
They sleep and dream and have no weight,
To curb their rest, of love or hate.
Strange, men should flee their company,
Or think me strange who long to be
Wrapped in their cool immunity.
Countee Cullen
Memorial to Countee Cullen 3
1995
cast polymer cement
72” x 54” x 26
The memorial was originally commissioned by the Bronx Council on the Arts and Woodlawn Cemetery for a year-long exhibition in Woodlawn Cemetery, where the poet Countee Cullen is buried. Cullen holds a copy of his first book of poetry, “Color.”