Why I prefer sculptures over paintings..

"Agora" by Magdalena Abakanowicz, one of my fav. public installations in Chicago..

Anyone who knows me, or has browsed through my blog, would know that I prefer sculptures over paintings.
WHY?..
The choice is more instinctive, but I have been asked this question many times, and it made ponder..

Here are some interesting aspects of sculptures..

Aesthetics meets physics [and chemistry].. Sculptures begins with sketches, but then there is the entire process of mold making, wax-casting, shell-making, metal pouring, chasing, sand-blasting, painting, patina. There's use of different materials like iron, steel, aluminium, bronze, wood, stone.. each with their own characteristics and each react differently to the elements of nature.. I find the entire process of fabrication of sculptures to be incredibly fascinating..


Preston Jackson at work.. wax-stage, to be ultimately bronze cast..


Here's another of Preston Jackson's work ..
Photograph of a dead whale and the draft sketches from there..


Preston Jackson, working on the Whale sculpture
"Making art can be a very lonely process".. - Preston Jackson..




Richard Hunt in his studio..
It's an amazing experience to see something so delicate and beautiful coming out of that heat and fire.. "In some of my works, it is my intention to develop the kind of forms Nature might create if only heat and steel were available to it.. - Richard Hunt..





I remember how Terrence Karpowicz had finished with the sand-blasting of his sculpture "Finish" by March this year and was waiting for the first day of good weather [with high enough temperature] to paint. He needed 70 plus degrees to paint and the very first day the weather hit 70 degrees, the painting was completed!





Ruth Aizuss Migdal, with her incomplete work "Whirling Dervish" at the fabrication. Now of course, the piece is completed.

To repeat, the entire process of mold making, wax-casting, shell-making, metal pouring, chasing, sand-blasting, painting, patina... is incredibly fascinating to me..





To add, I find sculptures to be more interactive. Rather than finding a place on the wall, they occupy space making them interact more directly to the environment around them.. Here's Anish Kapoor's "Could Gate", or as Chicagoans call it, The Bean". Arguably one of the most popular pieces of Public Art in Chicago.

Then there are some hidden jewels, like this "Daphne" by Dessa Kirk, in Northerly Islands.. made out of discarded Cadillac parts..


And that partially explains, why I'm a fan of sculptures, especially Public Art, out in the open, weathering the ravages of nature, keeping it's beauty intact, interacting with the environment and available for all to enjoy!

I sincerely THANK all the artists who have welcomed me in their homes and studios, giving me better insight into the making of sculptures and the life of an artist.