Nick Edmonds, Mountain near Santa Fe (image), painted wood, 20.5″H x 16″W x 10″D
Featured at the National Academy Museum, NY, 184th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Art. Reviewed in the April 17th issue of Antiques and the Arts Weekly, page 14.
Mountain near Santa Fe is from a recent series derived from selected views of mountains and woods. This particular mountain is on the Turquoise Trail between Albuquerque and Santa Fe New Mexico.
The goal is to provide viewers with a sense of the wholeness of nature while living indoors. These room sized pieces are derived from selected views of mountains, bodies of water and the woods. I first envisioned making a sculpture that could be thought of as a small garden inside a house while studying wood joinery in Japan in the 1970’s. The profusion of gardens to be walked through and the many environments of stone and gravel meant to be viewed while stationary were overwhelming and I have sought to recall and utilize some of this energy as I understand it in these recent works.
In these sculptures a movement of rocks leads the viewer through the sculpture. Each rock used in the sculpture is carved in wood from an identical sized stone found on beaches or somewhere in New England. The duplication of these stones is a demanding exercise and entered into the spirit of study and renewal. After the stones are carved and primed it takes a while to achieve the three dimensional rock garden effects that I seek. But when properly arranged these faithfully copied stones bring a depth and hardness to the sculpture which is fairly unique.
184th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Art is on view through June 10th, 2009 at the National Academy Museum, NY. Inquiries about Nick Edmonds please contact the Sunne Savage Gallery.