NATURIST SCULPTOR
ROSS N. R. OWEN
Painting the curved canvas of a sculpture is prefered to the plain rectangle of wall art.
The glassy fired finish is so final and complete when it comes from the kiln, that there is no need to contemplate further changes.
The magic in the kiln is such that it eliminates the chasing and patina of bronze and supplies an unending variety of colours that go beyond bronze as well.
Earthenware is a very friendly substance. Children will seldom refuse to use clay. It’s history goes beyond our knowledge. The associated materials are ancient and simple: soap, plaster, and pigment.
Bronze, porcelain, and stoneware are fine end products for earthenware sculpture.
Little can destroy a bronze.
The beauty of the delicate is embodied in porcelain.
The organic nature of design is shown best in stoneware and ball clay.
An artist will migrate through subject matter.
In any society there are only some that are truly free to contemplate our destiny--thus the arts.
These contemplations will be manifest in our works--thus they will be a positive force in our society.
This positive force is our responsibility.
An artist explores the future and criticizes the past.
Our main mystery is we, ourselves, so the main subject matter of art is human.
In sculpture the human is studied in form and that form is essentially nude although clothing and draping can be added or envisioned in the design.
The sculpture and the nude is fascinating because we are nudes, at least to ourselves.
The media of earthenware was mated to the need to sculpt and those were the parents of my ambition.
Was left in a library as a youngster and was disappointed to find that all of the great works of the world, except for some, reveal little other than the human guilt of procreation.
I later discovered that these works were incredibly beautiful and fascinating but I never lost that feeling that nudes ought to be nude.
Some icons display the Forbidden Fruit as an apple form but an awkward and strategically located greenery or otherwise indicates more accurately, our forbiddenness.
To some in this world, nudity is natural, and to most: covering to varying degrees.
My work is dedicated to those of nature and natural instinct.
The guilt of the body is abhorant to me. I am an artist and it is always an inhibition.
My lessons to society would include those that preserve and pacify.
The delicate nature of ceramic understates the peaceful environment that these could safely survive.
Violence is the antithesis to fine art, or so I feel.
A fine art that easily falls into a craft category arises the consideration of edition.
One solution to edition in ceramics is to make one each of bronze and porcelain and leave the earthenware open and unlimited.
As the molds would always be available, the porcelain could be replaced, should it meet disaster, but only one should exist at at any point in time. At this writing I am at a loss as to how to guarantee this without destruction of the mold.
The edition of bronze could be determined by demand prior to the casting, never to be repeated.
The editions of stoneware, ballclay and fine white earth should only be limited by the artist’s prolifisity.
A disdain for repitition will foster the variety of finish though the form will be the same.
The meaning of the work taken as a whole may be only a dedication to the beauty of the ideal or typical nude and this is easy to criticize.
Individual pieces are interpreted by individual response.
Rodan and others worked with a live nude model and the ability of that model to pose limited the pose too severely for my liking.
The pose of the form comes to me first and mechanics of same in fragments from a variety of sources.
My works only refer to typical forms, not to specific persons.
Outside of the passion for nudes is an ongoing need to portray other forms even to that of the abstract.
The human, however, on as real a portrayal as possible is the main stream of my pieces.
Those that intend to impose age and gender restrictions on my artistic impression are disregarded. Nothing I depict is obscene or erotic.
A viewer finding a prurent nature in any of my sculptures has their own psyche to contemplate.