nollsculpturestudio

Imagery – Animals

  From the time mankind began to make marks and assemble stone, mud and sticks he has attempted to capture, in two or three dimensions, out of materials at hand, the wonder, respect and awe we feel for animals. From the caves at Lascoux to the sculptures created by modern artists is not such a big conceptual jump. Animals compel our attention by virtue of the similarities of their parts to our own. They provide clues as to how we are to act in this world. For that reason and others I sculpt them and present them to the viewer.

Imagery – Figures

  The body human is always in a state of response to life, even in repose. In its language of gesture it reflects our emotional, intellectual and physical state. In addition, it has the wonderful ability to store up a history of our responses to life in skin, muscle and bone and reveal them in a language all it’s own, universally understood and readily available for all to read at a glance. I like to think of my work as three dimensional poems in the language of the body.

Imagery – Abstract

  I think I began working abstractly when my emotional responses to the world around me simply outran my intellect. Perhaps, in my effort to interpret certain messages I was getting, I simply ran out of the language that representation allows. There seems to be some benefit for me in short-circuiting the connection to that part of the brain that demands recognition and relying on whatever takes control from that point to inform the work. Because the language of the abstract seems to be universally understood by those with the capacity to make that leap, I present them to the viewer, I do so with the understanding that the translation of each work is unique for each viewer and dependant upon what each viewer brings to the work.

Titles

  I am not very good at naming things. The skill that naming something demands is different then the skill it takes to conceive of it and create it. Sometimes, however, the naming of a piece is an essential ingredient to understanding it. Some of my works are well named and with others the title is merely descriptive. I feel no obligation to a title in most cases and if you have a work of mine the title of which does not adequately describe your reaction to the work, simply rename it to suit your response. It’s fine with me.

Poetry

  There are times when the static response of two or three dimensional forms is inadequate. Using words as a creative medium is something I have only toyed with, but words have allowed me to experience a flowing response to an idea from which I get a great deal of satisfaction. The blank page provides me with a canvas of such large scale that I can present a virtually unlimited response to an idea. I can add or delete, refine and pursue a thought within or without the confines of rhyme or the limits of substances and space. In a sense, it is not so different from working in two or three dimensions, in that each word or phrase elicits an image in my mind. Rather than the effect of a single image, I create using a myriad of these word images to create ever-changing word patterns that describe my emotional response to life that runs the gamut from spectacular to mundane.

 You can read some of my poems at my poetry blog –  http.poeticafterthoughts.blogspot.com  

The Artist – Daniel Noll