James Steven WILLIAMS USA

TITRE / TITLE: Smoke On The Water.
POSITION dans le Parc de Sculpture Virtuelle (DAAP) / LOCATION in the Virtual Sculpture Park (DAAP): daap 22s 28e
CATEGORIE / CATEGORY: Biomorphism.
WEB SITE: Under Construction .
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY and  STATEMENT
BIOGRAPHIE et COMMENTAIRES DE L'ARTISTE

Biographie / Biography


I am an engineer by training, a tinker by trade, and a sculptor by desire.

Most of my working life has focused on an involvement with structure (electronic, mechanical, programmatic) and creative problem solving for utility. Although some would put the technical and artistic worlds at opposite ends of the spectrum, I have found that they are not really that far apart. Utility is a fundamental expression of human need. Both the engineer and the artist create, experiment, and finally craft their work into a reality.

As a sculptor, I choose to use that understanding and those skills solely for expression. My work is abstract and often representational. I look at the geometries of life to create engineered reflections of nature. I strive for the elegant solution: a succinctness of beauty in form, character, or statement - a melding of technical and artistic sensibilities. I push, pull, and blend shapes into forms relying heavily on defining lines, texture, and the qualities of the final materials that I choose to use (cast and welded metals, wood, and acrylic). The computer is central to much of this work - not as a medium, but as a tool in its ideation, development, and final realization (from object modeling to computer controlled machine tools). In all, my romantic and idealistic tendencies have sway.

Ideas for my sculptures come from sudden and often odd connections or standing back from reality and looking at it through differently colored - or distorted - glasses trying to fit seemingly disparate parts into a cohesive whole. Sometimes I design; other times, I go with the flow. It may involve doodling on paper, drawing on the computer, or doing some hand modeling (digital sculpture base 10).

My sources of inspiration are broad: my family, the forms of Noguchi, the line of Wright, the emotion of Michelangelo, the imagination of da Vinci (the preeminent artist/engineer), the vibrance of Blake, Fuller, Archimboldo, Einstein, Nevelson, Beasley, Disney, Inuit and Tlinglit sculpture and design, cubism, mannerism, deco, sunsets, autumn, humor, the human condition, geometries, connections, nature…

Wondering, I create. Seeing, I think. Understanding, I wonder. .


Commentaire / Statement

 

About my digital sculpture, “Smoke on the Water”

Early one morning, I was passing a local lake. The mist was burning off as the sun was rising, and I saw a grey heron at the edge of the reeds fishing. A light breeze rippled the surface deforming the bird’s image in the water while the reflected light seemed to do the same to the bird blending it into the mist like smoke on the water. I built a computer model of this by making various sized rectangles, offsetting them, tilting some - as if they were cross sections of the bird - and then skinning the group to form the 3D object. The attached JPEGs show left and right perspectives of my sculpture. It will eventually be cast in bronze and approximately 2 ft. x .5 ft. x 4 ft. (61 cm x 15 cm x 122 cm) in size. .