September 10, 2009 : Robin Jones + Andrew Norton Webber

Robin Jones : artist statement

As a sculptor I work in several media, each of which has its own character, its own limitations and possibilities. My stone pieces are not usually preconceived; rather, I find the image in the stone itself: either choosing a stone that suggests an image, or that has proportions that appeal to my sense of form. In any case, the work becomes a dialogue between me and the stone, gradually evolving a form that seems meaningful as well as aesthetically satisfying. They are almost always abstract, yet the lines and forms imitate nature in its vitality and in the uniqueness and persona of living things.

Working in ceramic suggests more open forms with space circulating through the piece rather than just surrounding it. Most of the ceramic pieces in this show were conceived as though models for much larger structures which one could walk through. These fantasy structures allow for a certain playfulness, and I often imagine them as buildings of unknown origin and purpose, perhaps discovered on another planet. My most recent ceramics are playful in the sense that one can play with them; move and rearrange them to make one’s own composition. An interactive art.

Bronze sculptures are mechanical reproductions of originals in clay, plaster, wax, or some other material. It is a complicated process involving making molds of the originals, producing duplicates in wax which are then cast in bronze by the lost wax method. The large bronze, Arbor, is the one exception to this process; it is a unique cast from a wax original.

The dynamic of my work is based on the contrast between straight lines and curves: the limitations of an edge, the movement of a sinuous line, the swelling of a full rounded form. I find these forms and movements in nature – in minerals and trees and bodies. And I find them also in my mind. Artistic creation is very much a part of nature; for what are we if not nature? Art follows the same patterns and evolves the same forms, arising from the great unconscious. It is a mysterious process which is my pleasure to witness and to participate in.

Andrew Norton Jones : artist statement

Jones says his work, "explores infinity".