When I moved to Williamsville, one of the unexpected pleasures of the move was the many treasures I found in the barn. Among those treasures were numerous old doors. Over the years, I have used the doors in a variety of ways for sculptures that I did. I think they are interesting for what they represent … especially whether they represent an entry or an exit point … or more general as a portal to whatever.
I had a large tree topple over in our lower yard during a fierce windstorm. Rather than cut it up and remove it, I made it into an art piece. One aspect of the piece involved the penetration of a door by one of the large limbs.
I also was invited to do a door piece for a project that the BUHS art classes was doing on door sculptures. I revisited my ideas on doors and what they represented and wrote the artist statement below for the show:
Art should speak to you … however, brief or complex the conversation.
Doors. It seemed so easy! Then, I spent an entire night tossing and turning … running idea, after idea, after idea though my head … rejecting one after another of my somewhat complex plans to do a door. Too much of this! Not enough of that! Shouldn’t a project like this say something? It wasn’t until the night was spent that I realized my error. I needed to go straight to the source. To understand what a door has to say, you have to ask the door. Thus, my project is that conversation.
bru ‘07
