"Nosey Fools" by Mike Medow, Jelutong Wood, 24" x 42" x 4" available at El Prado Gallery Sedona, AZ
(Sedona, Arizona • September 23, 2009) Whatever your expectation of Art, El Prado by the Creek presents new concepts in using different mediums to create art that leaves you breathless, enlivened and stimulated. Stone, copper, wood, clay, textiles, drills, hammers and dental picks are some of the tools that artists use to fabricate art in unexpected forms. The opening reception for the “Art Redefined” show featuring sculptor Mike Medow is Friday, October 2 from 5 – 8 p.m.
Mike Medow starts his carving process with a solid piece of wood with a history all its own. With that, he envisions a three-dimensional sculpture and begins to subtract from the organic material to create his piece. One of the things so amazing about Medow’s carvings is how he has learned to embrace the natural lines of the wood, the veins and knots, not to disguise them as flaws, but incorporate them and let them lead him in refining his vision. Each subtraction is a revelation from which the image emerges. Unlike clay, the wood carver does not add to the form, so each delicate subtraction is final.
Mike Medow is awestruck by the magnificent land formations of the West and those forms are echoed in the full and robust figures. The human forms reflect the hills and valleys of the Southwest landscape, which he calls “figurescapes.” From an innate sensitivity and intuition come the subtleties within Medow’s compositions. The fact that Medow is a direct carver is quite significant, in that sculpture is as much a tactual art form as it is visual. The carver, more than any other sculptor, uses his chisel as a sense organ while creating his work. Rarely does Medow use a power tool. He is constantly touching and feeling the sculpture’s surface to decide how and where to proceed.
Another unique artist, this one using steel and natural stone, R.C. Albin has successfully blended his passion for rock climbing with his gift for making rock furniture. The idea of making rock furniture came to him one day while he was sitting on a rock ‘on belay’ or acting as an anchor for other climbers following behind him. Albin was amazed at how comfortable he was sitting for a long periods of time on a granite rock, then it dawned on him that similar rocks might be appropriate for seating and table furniture. Over time, Albin perfected his steel and rock construction into amazingly comfortable chairs. People are drawn to them because of their unique appearance and cannot resist the urge to try them out. Due to his careful selection of stones, Albin has succeeded in creating astonishingly agreeable seating.
Sculptor Rob Holt has had a lifelong fascination with primitive cultures and began experimenting with designs based on ancient rock paintings and petroglyphs. Holt created his own style of shamans, or “First People” as he prefers to call them, sculpting the highly individual faces of indigenous African and early American tribes atop simple linear forms, yet with graceful and expressive hands grasping symbolic shapes.
Using his on formula of treated fibers that reproduces the look and texture of ancient, earth-made products, Holt added hair and clothing to his bronze figures, creating a new effect through this unique mixture of media. “I started with these open bronze figures,” he says, “then moved to semi-dressed figures, and on to fully garbed and adorned people. Now, the refinement is in their faces, because I’ve been working so hard on them, with only a hint of fiber to suggest the shape of their culture.”
From functional and provoking to inspiring and edgy, El Prado by the Creek cultivates bold ideas from their artists. Discover “Art Redefined” during the show from October 2 through 9 with the opening artist reception featuring Mike Medow on Friday, October 2 from 5 – 8 p.m.
El Prado by the Creek is located in Tlaquepaque Village, 336 State Route 179, Sedona, Arizona. Established in 1976, the gallery is a standard for fine art in Sedona. The gallery is open daily 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. El Prado by the Creek can be contacted at 928-282-7390 and at www.ElPradoGalleries.com.
