The Little Rock Culture Vulture is on vacation until Labor Day.
Category Archives: Public Art
Sculpture Vulture: Kerrick Hartman’s PLACES OF THE HEART
While the Sculpture Vulture usually features permanent public art installations, this week’s feature is one of the temporary installations at the Bernice Garden. One of the winners in the 2011 Sculpture Competition. Kerrick Hartman’s sculpture Places of the Heart is located at the west entrance to the Bernice Garden. The sculpture stands approximately four feet tall and is made of marble, steel and wood.
Here is his artist’s statement:
“I like to draw inspiration from the natural beauty of Arkansas with a focus on the small places tucked away that are sought out for a moment of quiet contemplation and introspection. It seems that with our stressed out and busy lives such places are harder to find and appreciate. These places of solitude are where we can let the interplay of ideas, emotions, and spirituality; shape our lives, our landscape, and our future.
These are the places of the heart and the outwardly spiraling form suggests hope from spiritual and intellectual growth, and transitions into an undulating shape on the reverse side signifying and inward path of introspection and self-reflection. Where one seeks solitude is often as individualistic and unique as the people of Arkansas; and in a sense reflects the very nature of the Bernice Garden.
Hartman currently lives in Stuttgart and attends UALR working on a B.A. in Studio Art. Hh has previously worked as a scientist focusing in plant pathology with a PhD From North Carolina State University in 1996. It is his current desire and passion to create art on a full time basis and to share his creative skill through gallery exhibitions, workshops and community art experiences.
Sculpture Vulture: Maribeth Anders’ SHADOW HOUSE
This month, the Sculpture Vulture highlights some sculptures from another Little Rock sculpture garden–the Bernice Garden on South Main Street.
Today’s sculpture is Maribeth Anders’ Shadow House. This fifteen foot tall sculpture is made primarily of painted wood. This is a permanent sculpture in the garden and was selected for inclusion in 2009.
Anders has lived in Little Rock for nearly three decades. She is currently a Visual Arts Instructor at Pulaski Technical College. Over the years, she has taught at the Arkansas Arts Center, the Little Rock School District and the UALR Community School of the Arts.
More of her work can be seen at her website at www.maribethandersart.com.
Sculpture Vulture: Forever Ready
Today’s Sculpture Vulture is once again in the Vogel-Schwartz Sculpture Garden. It is more fun to spend time in this garden where one can passively enjoy art with a nice cold bottle of water instead of having to labor in a vegetable or flower garden.
Ken Newman’s Forever Ready was donated in 2009 by the Sculpture at the River Market. Mr. Newman is a member of the National Sculptors’ Guild. One of Mr. Newman’s specialties is animals. Cast in bronze, Forever Ready depicts a Labrador. Here is Mr. Newman’s artist statement on the piece.
Forever Ready is based off my 30 years experiences with and my love of the Lab. The sculpture was created during the absence of a lab in my life, this was important, because I wanted to reflect on all the past labs, not a present companion. So, ‘Forever Ready’ is that reflection of the breed (hunter, companion and teacher)…Capturing its intense nature with discipline and loyalty, I have set the lab on edge so intense, that if not given the command to go, it will just fall off. But, it is able to maintain balance – wet and ready to go again. The lab’s shadow is cast in the water below, for a I cannot think of a lab without water.
Sculpture Vulture: MIRAGE
Today’s Sculpture Vulture is Ted Schaal’s MIRAGE located in the Vogel-Scwartz Sculpture Garden. It was purchased in 2009 for the garden.
According to Schaal, “Mirage Monument was inspired by seeing a desert mirage while driving in the west. A mountain appeared to be hovering in the sky and I wanted to capture that instant of wonder about that etherial phenomenon. The sense of illusion and curiosity as to how it is happening is central to the piece. The horizontal slit in the stainless orb is the horizon line and the ridges in the bronze make stair step profiles like heat off the road.”
Sculpture Vulture: CONVERSATION WITH MYSELF
Today’s trip to the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden features Lorri Acott-Fowler’s Conversation with Myself.
This bronze sculpture depicts a taller figure bent over at the waist and looking down at a smaller figure who is looking up at the taller figure. The figures are gender neutral. The sculpture was featured in the 2008 Sculpture at the River Market show.
The artist has said that there are times she feels like the larger figure and other times she feels more like the smaller one.
Sculpture Vulture: Michael Warrick’s CORAL
Today’s Sculpture Vulture feature is Michael Warrick’s Coral which was installed in the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden in 2010. Using bronze, Warrick highlights the many facets of that material in an abstract piece. It features roughness, smoothness, broad surfaces and delicate tendrils.
Warrick is a longtime faculty member at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and has sculptures placed as far away as China in addition to appearing in many public and private collections in Arkansas and throughout the United States.
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