Masahiko Kimura and Bonsai as Living Sculpture

The term Living Sculpture can be applied to a number of categories such as Land Art, Environmental Art, and Bonsai. Today, we look into the life of the "Magical Technician of Kindai Shuppan"; Masahiko Kimura. Bonsai art is no easy task, people have to intensively twist and coil wires into young plants to inhibit or shape their growth, at the same time leaves and roots have to be trimmed for the tree to grow into miniaturized proportions. At the early age of 15, Kimura became the apprentice of bonsai master Motosuke Hamano of Toju-en Bonsai Garden. His great skill in conceptualizing the growth pattern of trees became his catalyst into the bonsai society's greatest. He was also able to swiftly move past critiques who said his works were widely controversial at first. In his early years though, ...

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Origami Bonsai Sculpture

A few weeks ago we posted an article about the sculptural potential of Origami and Kirigami. Today upon browsing through some art prints, we found that among the origami artists of Japan, some consider a few form to be a hybrid between two types of art. Bonsai Origami is a combination of the paperfoldding craft and the tree-shaping craft, both popular art hobbies in Japan. In this hybrid hobby, the technique uses tree branches from actual plants, and combines these elements with paper flowers, leaves and fruits. This interesting artform was actually introduced by a foreigner; John Coleman in 2010. Coleman wrote a book entitled Origami Bonsai during April of last year. Aside from his initial publication, Coleman still strives to improve the technique further. He developed a technique called...

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John Chamberlain's Rustic Beauty

These days, fine art is a broad concept unrestricted by classical standards unlike in the Greek and Victorian ages. Many sculptures believe that making use of scrap or found objects is a good way to help rebuild something by turning it into something else. John Chamberlain uses old automobile parts and crushed steel to create distorted compositions of rustic sculptures in pure abstract form. Chamberlain wen to the Art Institute of Chicago and Black Mountain College during his years of learning. He became quite famous for his unique style of painting into three dimensions and his usage of car parts. He works and resides at Shelter Island in New York and has been sculpting for over fifty years. Sculpture by John Chamberlain - Photography by Ser Amantio di Nicolao Chamberlain's sculptures...

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Bill Woodrow's Sculptures Combine and Create from a Degree of Metal Diversities

In the 1970's many new faces in the world of Britain's sculpture community emerged into popular society. Among the personalities, Bill Woodrow stood out as a contemporary sculptor of mixed media creations. Many of his very first sculptural pieces were works made from materials and objects found in scrap yards. He has a fondness for using metal wares and machinery that have been discarded and abandoned. Many of the artworks made by Woodrow actually retain a sense of their former elements. Woodrow alters a diversity of materials to present them to the public in a new context of understanding, but still creates a personal feel and narrative by which people can relate with. Sculpture by Bill Woodrow - Photography by John McCullough 2006 He started using bronze as a material for his creative...

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Jay Gubitz and his Stained Glass Sculptures

You've all seen the usual stained glass artworks at cathedrals or deco building windows, but did any of you know about the artist who pioneered the usage of stained glass for 3D sculpture? Jay Gubitz turned the industry into an artform by innovating a stereotypical 2D media into new heights. Jay was always interested in the process of design, but began his career as a marketing artist. Eventually though, he found his way into glass by enrolling at several workshop courses at the suggestion of his wife, Elaine Gubitz. Using a basic foundation of knowledge from his lessons, he then built on them using trial and error methods. Through his own self-taught art methodologies, he was able to free the stained glass medium of its flat limitations. Photography and Sculpture Artwork by Jay Gubitz Jay...

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The Art Practices of Sculptor John Bacon

A true blue British sculptor from Southwark, John Bacon was born in 1799 and was fascinated by sculpture at a very early age. He apprenticed at Lambeth; a porcelain manufacturer very famous at the time. Bacon was fourteen by the time he worked there as a painter and sculpture modeller. By getting accustomed to the process of high-fired porcelain, he was able to get a good learning foundation for the craft. Eventually during the course of his life, he made use of the technical and practical knowledge base to create his own unique and well-defined porcelain sculptures. Aside from working in porcelain, Bacon also mastered several other media, such as stone-working and marble-carving. He was able to improve an artificial stone sculpting process being used at the Coade Artificial Stone Manufactory. Sculpture...

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Kirigami, Sekkei and Comlex Origami Sculpture

Robert Lang, Meguro Toshiyuki and a few others developed a methodological system of origami paper folding called Technical Origami or Origami Sekkei. Unlike normal day-to-day origami folding, Sekkei Origami is more likened to an artform, specifically the artform of three dimensional sculpture. The creative output of Sekkei Origami can be characterized by complicated figures composed of well-formed details. Examples could include multi-jointed subjects with complex extremities such as toes, legs, tails and wings. Most of the usual patterns involved with this type of origami sculpting begins with something called the crease pattern, which is basically the overall layout of the creases needed to form the final model. Many origami sculptors develop their own compositions and designs by structural...

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Minimalism in Sculpture

For every complexity and detail observed in hyper-realism or naturalism, we can also see an opposite trait within the movement of minimalistic art. Whether sculpture or painting, photography or digital art, minimalism is a basic foundation that appeals to many in the community. Often thought over as elegant, avant-garde mannerisms of design, minimalism actually exhibits the trait of containing the strongest impact in the smallest of bodies. It portrays a certain type of aesthetic beauty that almost anyone can appreciate due to its simplicity in freeform and structure. Artists and theorists argued that minimalism conveyed every message that any other artform could, but through an extremist's definition of simplicity at work. Free Ride Sculpture by Tony Smith (Minimalism in Sculpture) The...

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Sculpting the Environment

The term environmental sculpture will often bring up an image of something green. It would make you thing of something that's alive, or biodegradable, or at the very least something organic. Despite these stereotypical ideas which are not entirely wrong, many environmental sculptures generate there impact and beauty by pooling together the things that surround them and creating an assemblage of sorts. Just like in the picture below, this man-made scenery is actually an example of "Site-Specific" sculpture that resembles a spiral whirlpool in the ocean. This movement of sculpture began from contemporary abstract sculpture, but was transformed by several artists including Robert Irwin, James Turrel and Richard Serra. Sculpture by Robert Smithson Photgraphy by Soren Harward Sometimes called...

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