Wood and Canvas Sculpture

The very first Modern Contemporary Sculpture I did that was a break from painting was the "Wood & Canvas" Series. It was constructed from the materials that were used to construct stretcher bars in early paintings I did fresh out of college. The pieces were held together with the tension of the canvas by placing vertical dowels through a jig made of wood and looping the canvas through. These pieces were very meditative and were the first Modern Contemporary Sculptures that were I exhibited in my studio in Venice in 1972, 3 years after moving there in 1968 .One of the first collectors of this series (a Fasion Designer named James Reva) lived in Marina Del Rey a beach community next to Venice Beach. When he hung his Wood and Canvas Sculpture on his wall the neighbors began hanging Beach Chairs on their walls. I am not sure if it was a joke or they simply liked the look and did it. As simple as this series was it was the beginning of my sculpture carrier and a much more concrete way of expression for me compaired to painting. It was something I could control much easier than painting.

Painting can be very ethereal in that you may start painting a tree and it can easily end up being a face. This is because the paint is very fluid. With sculpture one usually begins with a idea that is planed and even drafted as a plan with dimensions and details all specified almost like Architecture. before actually begining construction. I suppose this is true with some painters who work from sketches, but their is still that element of fluidity when executed and often is not exactly what the painter may have had in mind.

With sculpture, what you plan is what you get. Leaving the chance of experimentation to a limited possibility. It is very controlled. Working with Geometry is especially very deliberate. All your tangents and connections are pre decided and the components must merle be assembled. Of course with more organic sculpture this may not be the case, say for example the works of Henry Moore who would carve away at blocks of foam to create a some what accurate resemblance to his models.

However simple the "Wood and Canvas" series was, it changed the way I thought about art. Having moved to Venice in 1968 I began to see that art was a reflection of the times. In college you are taught what was, not what is to be. I had never saw a Studio till I moved to Venice. One night I was walking down the street and there was a warehouse door slightly opened. I peered inside and saw a huge white space with approximately 7" x 12' laminated layers of fiberglass hung on the walls, casting colors on the floor. A short man with his hair pulled up like a Samurai Warrior greeted me. I asked what he was doing and he told me he was a Artist. The man was Ron Cooper one of the many sculptors working in polyester Resins at the time in Venice along with Robert Irwin, DeWain Valentine, Vasarely, Fredrick Eversly among others. I asked him what this huge space was and he told me it was a studio. I explained to him that I was a artist too, and was painting luminous paintings of the formation of the Earth on glass. He invited me in curious what this young kid of 18 was up to. I was totally overwhelmed by this studio. I spent the next month searching for a Space of my own. I finally found one on West Washington Blvd, now known as Abbott Kenny. I gutted the building, put in new drywall and about one year latter had my first show there. The show was of my first Modern Contemporary Sculpture, the "Wood and Canvas" series. This was to be the beginning of my art carrier in Venice. The "Wood and Canvas" series was my first body of Modern Contemporary Sculpture.