Creativity...what is it?

My creative process revolves around three things: the material; what it wants to reveal of its self; and how I can transform it into the thing that it wants to be. When I was younger and heard statements by sculptors that all they do is discover what is inside the material they have at hand I would think WTF are they talking about. I mean a block of stone is just that; a block of stone and a lump of clay is just a lump of clay. Then I started sculpting and discovered what they meant. I use structural steel for my most challenging, and to me most interesting, pieces. Now how much soul can a W12X50 I-beam have after all? A lot! For example there is my sculpture on the Roanoke River Greenway called The Mutated Snail. After I found the I-beam, it sat around my studio for several months. Finally, one day I said, "well let's see about doing something with this beam". 

I started cutting on it and soon the figure of the snail started emerging. After adding a few extra pieces it looked to me like a large mutated snail. With some grinding and paint it was finished and ready for a showing. Exactly how that happened, I don't know except the snail emerged from that piece of steel. 

I won the City Purchase Award at the Roanoke City Art Show and the Snail is now enshrined in its present location near Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.

My sculpture Found In The River has been selected by juror Doug McClemont, a writer and curator based in New York, to show at the 2015 Biennial Exhibition at Olin Hall Galleries in Salem, VA. Also one of my designs for the City of Lynchburg Artful Bike Rack Competition, Sir Speedy was selected to be constructed and installed early this summer in front of the Sun Trust Bank in Downtown Lynchburg, VA. Thanks for taking the time to read this. 

John Wilson

If you would like to see some of our completed work that is for sale go to www.wilsonhughesgallery.com  or visit us at the gallery. We appreciate referrals. Please share this email with your friends. The next Art by Night is Friday, April 3rd from 5 to 9 pm.

John Wilson & Suzun Hughes  

Wilson Hughes gallery - contemporary fine art & craft