The Complexities and Risks of Mixed Media

Sculptures in the classical age were all created with stone, wood or precious metals. This signified the ability to last from generation to generation within family possessions. Today however, a popular trend defies this historical observation, the evoloution of mixed media.

Mixed media is a term that people use when refering to works of art that contain two or more substantial or structural media within their main composition. The most popular forms of mixed media art include assemblage sculptures and hybridities between sculpture and other forms of art.

The artist' ability to foresee the combinations of materials can be the reason why many mixed media works often draw a crowd's attention merely from the contrasting beauty of its substances. Combining glass and wood for example is a good start to creating a still life sculpture of a river scene. Mixed media is an opportunity for artists to break down limitations in texture, color and even physical discrepancies. It also measures how much an artist knows about his or hee media as well.

The risks in creating mixed media works can be great. First of all, artists do not often take the long years to master two or more media, it is painstakingly hard to perfect glass casting for example. On the other hand if one would wish to work with glass he may instead go for an assemblage technique and make use of existing glass pieces, bypassing the need to cast anything. The point is, using two media usually means an artist does not have a complete mastery in at least one of them. This can be allocated to risks in stability, immediate presence and environment related issues. Another thing to consider about mixed media artwork, is their consistent originality, some artists make use of combining old or antique wares or manufactured products like plastics. These would most likely have been made by external sources that could close down or disappear in the future, stripping the style of a key medium and forcing it to change consistency. These are some of the issues presented to mixed media art, however they are minor at most and do not always happen to be the case. Mixed media is still a novelty art innovation that continues to surprise our society every day with newer and bolder creations.

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deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum : A Haven for Young Sculptors

The sculpture park opened its doors back in 1950, but ever since then people have been returning to this wonderful venue for creative thinking.  This thirty five acre location boasts both a wide open area park that hosts more than sixty notable sculptures/artworks at every point in time. Aside from their famous outdoor exhibition, an indoor museum is also home to an array of rotating exhibits made by nationally and internationally acclaimed artists.

The museum constantly also maintains a strong relationships with many of the emerging young artists from the New England pool of sculptors and creative people. The venue hosts several interesting activities related to both sculpture and the fine arts. Talks, interactive tours, classes and other events will be common sights at this place that's open all year round. It also offers one of the largest non-degree granting studios in all of New England. They currently have around 2,000 students of the arts enrolled in classes and workshops made to hone their creative ability.

To find out more about their activities, please visit their website here.

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An Introduction to The Kinds of Sculpture

Cast sculpture is a methodological technique that gives you more versatility in form and contour, but also creates a lasting artpiece that you can hand down from generation to generation. Here, abstract cast sculptures by sculptor Kylo Chua exhibit a flowing continuity through illusory motion. Kylo’s sculptures give an idea of what artists think when they seek to “defy a medium’s limitation”. Sculpture is something hard and solid, generally static and immovable. These examples showcase the fluidity that a concrete work of art can actually portray given the right mannerisms.

Unlike its counterpart- carved sculpture, cast sculpting requires a negative mould of the figure to be made. This is done by using plaster, silicone rubber or any other moulding agent suitable to your material. The mould is then used to cast a positive version of the design using materials such as marble, bronze, glass and precious metals.

Carved Sculpture is the traditionalist and older methodology of the artform. Artworks made by this technique are usually very dense and durable, withstanding natural weathering effects and even time itself. In the Philippines, there are many notable sculptors that make use of this method, such as Fred Baldemor who sculpts using alabaster stone gained directly from natural deposits. He carves representational figures with extraordinary attention to detail and texture that sometimes it makes you forget the hard material he used in the first place.

Carving can make use of many unique tools, from the basic chisel to the modern water-jet saw. Each tool has its own benefits and limitations as well. For the most part, a chisel will give you a great deal of accuracy in small detail, but will consume most of your working time. One traditionalist sculptor, who tried carving glass is now known for his unique process. Ramon Orlina began glass sculpture over ten years ago by utilizing  the unconventional method of carving abstractions from solid green blocks of asahi glass. Today, his glass works are in galleries all over the world.

Assemblage Sculpture is one of the newer techniques in the variety of sculpting methods. This one take the notion of a “collage” and applies it to a three dimensional idea by constructing a unified subject from several different  objects. Assemblage is usually used by younger sculptors because of its diversity in material. It has grown popular within this niche society also because of its easy cost and availability. The most common place to find such sculpture are at art shows depicting an abstract or interpretive theme. Assemblage sculptors love to modify something they see in the real world and turn it into a visual rendering by their own hands.

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