Solo Show – When a body of work is greater than the sum of its parts

Though I haven’t posted in a while, I wanted to bring you up to date with my solo show, Art for Peace. Yesterday May 6th, it ended and today I was told that the sold work has now moved into their new homes and the gallery has been reset with the remaining pieces of my show staying in the main gallery. I’m very happy about this as a body of work, even a reduced body of work, is more powerful than individual artworks spread throughout a gallery in a group setting. The results so far are way beyond my norm and I hope that this is something repeatable and a sign that the times are changing in the art world. So far, I have sold 18 sculptures (7 in cast glass, and 11 in stone) and one commission. The new gallery set up will run through the beginning of June, so if you are in the Salt Lake City region, stop in at the A Gallery and see my work there.

Here’s something that I wrote after the April 7th opening:

Not able to sleep, and just had to get up and begin April 8. Last night was
incredible. We arrived in SLC in the afternoon to winter. Hail, sleet, and
snow and then as we drove to the gallery after sprucing up, it really
began to snow hard. We entered the gallery at 5:45 and the staff was
smiling and a coy way. Did you have a look, they said. At what I said. The
red dots. The show had been up since March 29th and the staff had been
busy. 11 red dots, and one sculpture was gone, also sold. TWELVE sold and
the opening hadn’t even happened yet. OH MY GOD. Lisa and I walked around
seeing what had sold and were in shock, but elated. By the end of the
opening three more sales and many potential buyers, as they talked to me
and said to the gallery folks, they would be back, and they meant it. I
met with interior designers, who have been selecting my work over the
years for their clients. I met with architects and people with starched
shirts, under beautiful over garments. I met with people with such designer
glasses, of which I have never seen, and dressed to match.

One man bought my Seed of Compassion. He is the head of the fine art
department at the university here in Salt Lake City. He was all heart and
what felt like meeting a brother to say it like it felt.

I share my joy with you. This is something that I have NEVER felt before
in a gallery and never felt having done a good showing someplace including
our home. It feels like this is the oasis that I have been approaching
these 20 years in the art world, yet not ever tasting these waters, I
never knew what it would feel like until last night and now. It really
hasn’t fully sunk in, and I’m just riding the wave.

Getting Through Dark Times

Winter is always a challenging time for me in the northern climates. Like in nature, plants seem to go dormant and not produce outer growth. I too am part of nature and that may be one of the reasons I haven’t written much here on the blog. Well, there is more light coming each day, and I’m beginning to see new buds on the trees, and some early flowers popping up. These are reminders that life has cycles and the dark times will pass into gray and soon into the light. My creativity is now blooming as well. I have been offered a solo show at the A Gallery in Salt Lake City, UT in April 2011 and that has given me great reasons to get my creative juices flowing and sculpting up a storm.

Maybe there are other factors than just nature, creating the dark time. It seems to me that the current economy is also reason for some dark days ahead. What’s next with all of this budget cutting. Arts organization and their services are in deep trouble. The government is looking at cutting to zero most programs in the arts which require funding. I am continually receiving urgent requests to write my senators and congress representatives to not cut spending for the NEA, NPR, PRI, and local arts orgs.

You too can contact your representatives to hear your voice in support of the arts.

I have started a winter Artist Salon and it is something that you too can do in your area.

If you feel that the support of other creative types would bring benefit to your creative process and to others, here is what you do. Send out an email invitation to all your local artist friends and invited them to come and discuss what gets them through these dark times. If you don’t have many art friends to ask, then you can send a letter to the editor of your local paper or post on some bulletin boards around your community and you coordinate the efforts to make this happen. You can do it!

In previous years, I have hosted Artist Salons in my home. Artists and creative types have come and shared their challenges as well as their creativity. There is something about our work as artists which is very self absorbing and often isolating. With a group, you can step out of that bubble and feel with the other artists what the dark times are like for them. You can also share your challenges and ask for ideas or what has helped the others get through. This basic support group model, where everyone is given room to speak out and listening is as important as speaking, encourages the synergistic spark of new possibilities. This can create a renewing energy that can overcome the voices which hold you back.

This doesn’t have to begin and end in the winter time. You can host these year round if you’d like. This winter, I suggested another venue format for our Salons. The meetings would take place in other artist studios. We have just come back from our second studio and I feel inspired from seeing how another artist, organizes their work and how their creative process unfolds till it reaches the finished artwork. The group will meet every two weeks and we meet for three hours on a weekend afternoon. But this is subject to the needs of the group and your group might be better off in a weekday evening. Who knows what will work for you.

If you live in the Kitsap County region of Washington and want to partake in our 2011 group, please send me an email and I can send you the next meeting location. Wishing  you the best creative times, overcoming the darkness, and reaching out with your creativity. We will all benefit from your self expression. Don’t wait till you are too old to begin, and if you have begun, find the support you need to carry on.

ART SAVES LIVES! Sculpt Proud!

 

I AM Peace Corten Steel with Limestone 6' tall

Fall News – New sculpture book 3D modeling and more

Well after previewing my new sculpture book, I spent the last 10 days making edits and improving the layout and look of the book.

Brian Berman sculptures by Brian Berman | Make Your Own Book

WOW!   I can hardly say how great it feels to complete my first book of sculptures. The photo book is an visual exhibition of sculptures I created between 2002 and this summer.

You can view a full preview of the book, as well as purchase copies at the above link.
I will sign copies of the book during Art in the Woods, November 12-14th. Please bring friends.

I am now working again on the 3D modeled shell form. It’s a long story and one that I will share more at length when I can show you a finished sculpture. It feels like a distant oasis, calling me to drink, yet not knowing why, I move forward. What is the shell about? And why does 3D modeling draw me in? This is what I know as of now, and when I step down the road a few miles and months, I will likely have a new knowledge. Following this inner call is one reason being an artist is such a daring adventure.

Showing the resin segments glue tacked together

The shell has been a symbol I’ve used in many early sculptures. It represents a home cast aside, either through death or by moving on. It reminds me that I carry around protection and I can drop it when it is time. It is the shell of the old which yields to the seed of the new. For me, it is the power of this symbolic sculpture, and what emerges is a new beginning. This is what I see going on both in my personal life perspective and the greater changes in our culture and the rest of the world.

Vertical view of the shell

And there were many new sculptures emerging from my studio this summer. They can be seen on my website, as well as in the new book. My creative juices were peaking throughout the summer and I enjoyed taking many photographs, as our Miller Bay home offered us many wildlife experiences. I photographed schools of small fish in the millions, man of war jellyfish, seals, otters, birds of prey and water foul in numerous species. We traveled to Utah, where I taught a stone carving workshop, and exchanged sculptures in my gallery there. We also enjoyed summer play time. Lisa and I competed in a Boule tournament and we were awarded 1st place metals and given a trophy based upon our excellent play.

I AM That

Gateway IV

I am grateful for my good health, and for all your support, both of which keep me going.

I look forward to seeing you during Art in the Woods, the Bainbridge Island Studio tour, or one of our fall events.

My best to you, Brian

My First PhotoBook of Art for Peace

Brian Berman sculptures by Brian Berman | Make Your Own Book

It has been quite a while since my last blog posting. I have been very busy making my Art of Peace work. Some would say it’s a daily grind, especially when working some of the stones that don’t like being chiseled. And the glass work has been slow in cooling, and even slower in the finishing phase. But the main reason I’m writing today is to CELEBRATE the completion of my first photo book of my artwork. Please have a look and drop me a comment if you feel moved. Thanks, Brian

Live your life as a Portal for Peace

My creative process as a sculptor is my primary social political activism. This spring I completed four important sculptures. There are times when my sculptures give me an unexpected gift, a mystical boon from the collective unconscious. This just recently was the case with the completion and installation of my last sculpture, Peace Portal. I pictured it as a symbolic portal for peace, when each person sees that war is obsolete and steps up to living a life of peace.

The surprise came when a friend wrote me that she lives the idea of a portal for peace. She meant to type, I love the idea of a portal for peace. So I received the gift; that I am living my life as a portal for peace. The sculpture is just an outward symbol and a signpost for all to see. And so it is in my life and yours as well. May we all live in peace, on the inside as well as outside.
Here’s a video link to the Making of Peace Portal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsVOzXaysyE

I also completed Earth Stewards, which are two sculptures and the beginning of a series.

With the Gulf Oil disaster, as well as environmental and health issues globally, I felt the need to sculpt these symbols for caretakers of our precious planet earth. Again I feel that we are here on earth to care for the planet and each other as Earth Stewards.

Then there is Cetus. After watching the movie “The Cove”, I knew that I had to finish Cetus. I had started this sculpture in Berlin, Germany in 2003. It was transported here in Lisa’s furniture container and has been waiting for my inspiration to finish it and get it out into a public setting. The movie was what I needed to light the fire within me to create a symbol to understand, honor, and to protect these precious mammals.

Looking forward, I will be in a show at Matzke Fine Art Gallery and Sculpture Park with an opening on June 26th and running until August 29th, so if you are looking for a great outing this is a beautiful destination. http://www.matzkefineart.com

Another great destination is the Wescott Bay Sculpture Park, also known as IMA Sculpture Park on San Juan Island, where I installed the Peace Portal and also Genesis II. http://sjima.org

July 23-25, I will be teaching stone sculpting in Salt Lake City. If you want to attend, email or call and I can connect you with the organizer.

Wishing you a great summer.
Thank you for your continued support. Brian

Getting Publicity the Hard Way at Sundance

Well here’s the kind of publicity I least expected. I’ve not yet turned this lemon into lemonade.

When artwork is destroyed by an accident, does payment for the artwork cover the loss? What about the gift and intention of that artwork. When I make my art, I make it to express peace and healing, something that I feel is of great importance in the world. I work in materials (stone, bronze and cast glass) that will last well beyond the life of most consumer goods. When it is purchased, the intention of the buyer is to enjoy and share my art as a part of their living/working environment. Selling my artwork is the main way that I get to continue making more art.

It was not my intention when I made this sculpture that it would be damaged and not enjoyed by the person who purchased it. When I am paid for damaged artwork it is different than selling my artwork. I have lost one of my creations and the purchaser doesn’t get to enjoy their purchase.

Last winter when I exhibited in the Louvre, I signed up for Google alerts. Yesterday I got the alert for this article. The irony of this article garnering publicity for me during the Sundance Film Festival, is that it was at the cost of a damaged sculpture. The author S.T. VanAirsdale for Movieline twists and turns the story to create what he calls the Sundance Sculpturegate; who pays for the broken sculpture? So now, I get the publicity and a check, and someone who I don’t know gets to pay for the broken sculpture. Unfortunately, it is a loss for both of us and the world as well.

Here’s the link to the article in MovieLine.com.

http://www.movieline.com/2010/01/harvey-weinstein-and-the-curious-case-of-the-broken-sundance-sculpture.php

Phoenix Rising falls and breaks

Well, to dispell the uncertainty and doubt in the article, I will get paid for the broken sculpture, though this is not the way I like to make sales. Getting my artwork into a Harvey Weinstein movie or being purchased at Sundance by the many film makers, actors, and film lovers is one of the benefits of exhibiting in the CODA Gallery in Park City. So as The Sundance Film Festival comes to a close, MIRAMAX Films closes it’s doors, my Phoenix Rising returns to prima materia. Maybe Mr. Weinstein will want a Berman Phoenix sculpture of his own.

Feed an Artist-Feeding your Soul

December 31, 2009, the end of the year, the end of a decade, the end of scarcity and fear. Please continue a list of all that you want to end, taking time today to make it known and commit to something that Feeds your Soul in 2010.

Appreciation is a life-blood for me, and sales are the height of appreciation when it comes to the challenges of hard economic times. During the good times, when sales were covering the costs of new materials, tools that wear out, and the ongoing costs of education, my artwork would flourish and I could feel my Soul’s calling. The artwork would show up in my vision, then in the material, and after a period of transforming the materials, the artwork would be done. Often when working in the “Zone” when my monkey mind was silent, I would wonder how the artwork happened, losing myself in the process, like disappearing and the art continued to be made. Don’t know if this is common for all artists, but this experience is worth returning to the studio day after day searching for that Zone.

As a self-supporting artist for 30 years, I have found this year the most challenging. With galleries closing down, and sales not at all what they used to be, an appreciative audience is hard to find. This economy has forced me to look at how important being appreciated is. Making my artwork  just to satisfy ME is not complete without presentation to an audience that will view it and connect to it. And when my artwork is appreciated, well, I find it’s life enhancing, like oxygen, touch, food, love, water, and communication. Finding ways to receive a note of appreciation, the voice of another, the smile when someone looks at my work is essential for me. Donating to local causes also gives me appreciation, and is one of the ways I feed my soul.

Sculpture is a non-verbal communication and I want mine to be received, valued and appreciated. In a recent exhibition of my sculptures, a woman admiring my work declared in a loud voice, “Your work makes me so Happy!” That has stayed with me every day since hearing her say that.

In galleries, it’s sales that give me appreciation. I love attending an exhibition of my artwork, where I get to hear the comments, to feel the appreciation directly. Those of you who know my work, know how much it takes to transport and display sculpture. I do regional shows so that I can directly connect with the viewer, see their reaction to my art, hear their appreciation, as well as sell my work. I also love installing my work in someone’s home, office, or public setting. The selling obviously keeps the entire cycle in flow.

When sales (and appreciations) don’t happen over an extended period of time, it brings up big questions about my motivation for making new sculptures. Would I do it without appreciation? Could I provide my own appreciation, as a path to self-sufficiency? I pretty much stopped blogging for many months, after last December’s Louvre exhibition in Paris and returned back to the states to the economic freeze. I found it hard to write about the dark night that didn’t fade away at dawn. I moved through that frozen state by teaching, which lead to creative ideas, and new sculptures emerged in my studio.

So now I sit here at the computer writing this on the last day of 2009. I remember back to Y2K, when the last decade of the 20th century was being hyped by all the fear mongers as well as good intentioned friends. Because of some computer glitch, all the banking systems would stop, all the markets would collapse, all the airlines would crash down in some way. Well we got through, that within a split second it was proven to be a myth of no proportion. Yet it was 9/11 that brought the biggest change to me as an artist, as I upped my social artistry, and shifted my sculpture focus towards Art of Peace.. There is a big story there, and it is best read about on the www.BermanHealingArts.com website.

As the year comes to a close, my soul has been fed by all those who gave appreciation, and by the many creative impulses that have bubbled up to the surface with new sculptures and projects. My thanks to those who found and purchased my artwork. My artist plan which I call Art of Peace is to continue to make artwork that connects people to themselves and to others. To me, our Soul’s nature is peace and love. I know these are such common words that they have lost their value and meaning. But please know this, Peace is our birthright and love is our purpose for being. Let us end the year, with a commitment to support each other with love and appreciation. Let us live the power of peace which is within each of us. It is my prayer that my artwork helps connect us all in our one shared humanity.

May 2010 bring us all closer to our dreams. May the entire world find peace and joy.

Omega Series

Getting Back to Sculpting

After my inspirational days at Pilchuck, I began a remodel of my studio space. Over the past 18 years, I have mostly worked outdoors under a roof but without walls. This is invaluable for the heavy removal of stone material which generates large amounts of dust. During the winter months, I would be tempered by the weather and this winter I wanted to work on glass and stone sculptures without the concerns of the weather conditions. This would require building walls, and plumbing the studio with hot water for the wet polishing that I do. Besides enclosing my studio, having warm water is one of the most important improvements I have made in my new studio space.

Well, I thought it would take a few weeks with some hired help to get the studio in shape. Well, three months later I finally called it quits, knowing that I could continue improving the workspace and building some new tools and work benches. Little did I know how important getting back to sculpting would be for me. When the sculptures I had in mind began to take shape, I became a nicer person. I felt like I had been carrying them inside and they needed to come out, and like the birthing process, I wasn’t the most pleasant person to be around. Yet once they took form, I was much more at peace, and even friendlier. Here is a photo album you can view the transformation of my outdoor studio:

http://picasaweb.google.com/blb4peace/StudioRemodel?feat=directlink

As I had a couple of exhibitions and some shows to apply for I needed to get back to sculpting. I have been carrying ideas from Pilchuck Glass School days inside of me, and waiting to get them started. As my shows approached, I needed to work quickly to get some sculptures completed and cast glass sculptures are not quick to make. Casting glass is the most indirect sculpting I do. Imagine making a sculpture in clay or wax, and then making a rubber mold with a plaster mother mold, then making a wax of the sculpture which needs to be worked to the look I want, then making an investment mold in preparation for the glass casting stage. Then the wax is steamed out of the mold and the mold is then dried. This stage is the most critical in prepping for the glass to melt into the mold. Now the part that’s really slow, bringing the mold and the glass up to melting temperature, soaking it to allow the bubbles to rise, then cooling it ever so slowly to relieve the stresses in the glass, when it reaches room temperature, it is best to leave it in the unopened kiln for an additional day. The the devesting of the mold is the exciting part, where the quality of the  casting is realized. If it is a good casting then the cold working and polishing of the glass sculpture begins. If the casting is not good, then you go back to the making of the wax and start the process over. This is why many people don’t cast glass, as it’s such a slow indirect method of sculpting.  So I worked on stone sculptures, as I only had 6 weeks before the exhibition.

So I let my imagination open to work with my signature stone, an Onyx that is a beautiful orange/yellow calcite. And a new series began to be birthed. Bringing sculptures of light into this world is a great joy. See posted photos of the new work.

Soon I will begin preparation for glass castings. I will post some photos soon to show you the direction I am taking with the same theme of bringing light into this world.

Wishing you readers the best for the upcoming holidays. I am thankful of all the support I have received this year and throughout my life. Your comments are welcomed. Brian

Pilchuck Glass School is a dangerous place

Though I was only a few miles away from my usual summer sculpting symposium hosted by NWSSA.org, as the crow flies, I was attending the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, WA, and I was in dangerous territory. Stepping away from Camp Brotherhood (site for NWSSA’s Symposium) for the first summer time since 1992, to enter the glass community at Pilchuck was a great opportunity as well as a great risk. As I went to continue my study of glass casting there, the exposure to print making, glass blowing, glass everything, as well as a complete wood shop and metal shop to make whatever, was soooooo tempting to just explore these realms. Yet there was a need for sleep, which was something that I have done a lot of since returning home. The awakener was one day being asked how it felt to be the oldest student at Pilchuck this session. I hadn’t noticed nor felt that way. What’s a number anyway??? I was likely one of the earliest to climb the steep hill to my room, most nights after midnight. My roommate often came in when the morning birds were chirping and then would show up for breakfast at 7:45.

Well on to the art itself….. I took a turn at print making to visually show the inner volume(“in reverse”) of my last glass casting.  I had a great time and got lots of praise for what I created. To see some images of my and some observing photos and time there, here’s a link: http://picasaweb.google.com/blb4peace/PilchuckSession32009?authkey=Gv1sRgCOK-uuPgv83R5AE#

Here’s a few photos of what I set up in my home to show the new artwork. Hope you are all having a creative time this summer.
Here are a few shots of the glass cast sculptures.

5 prints and two glass castings

I will be teaching a hand carving workshop this coming weekend in Poulsbo, WA, August 1 & 2 if anyone is interested, please email me. Sculpt and print proud! Brian

The “Mid Time” – spaces between and what to do….

Mid Time is what I’m feeling on the inner world. I am exploring this feeling of mid. Midlife is what mostly comes to my mind, yet as I recently turned 60, I am most likely past the mid point. It shows in my artwork as I took a passionate turn a few years ago, just when I was reaching a great level of accomplishment with my artwork and with my peace work, and started my second attempt to use cast glass as a sculpting medium. After three years of casting, I can now say that the work that I am producing in glass is very satisfying as each sculpture is the realization of what I envisioned. I am dreaming some new ideas, but that is for another day of writing. Today I’m addressing the mid time, between the beginning and the end, the place where I have enough life experience to know that I don’t have to begin again, yet what will carry me through till the end? I hope to capture some of this in my latest sculptures, and stone seems to be my sketch book, though it doesn’t ever feel like graphite on paper. I am happy that my body is cooperating with my passion, though there are many groans and slower movements these days. After nearly 20 years of stone carving, I’m slowing down, lifting less weight, and enjoying making sculptures from remnants of other sculptures. These remnant assemblages give me the advantage of not having to carve every part of the sculpture, just some of the parts and then assemble with my pinning method.

I’ve been partaking in some talks lately with mythopoetic men, Daniel Deardorff, Martin Shaw, and Michael Meade. Some speak of the soul as what one accesses in the forest, and the village is mostly where we access mind. Taking time in the forest experience, turning away from the electronic world, connecting with my inner nature where my true nature lives. The trials of this time of change, are the trails leading me into the forest. Stepping away from the village can be of great risk to the norm. My daily routine and work will suffer from my absence. And what is to gain….maybe this is the mid time, how to hold back from the doing. Oh this is challenges my drive towards responsible behaviour. What will my culture and society say if I no longer produce, if I don’t pay my bills, if I take time for something new to emerge like a spring to fill up.

During the time I wrote about in my recent blog (6months to the day), I found that my body and what felt like “my cells wanting me to stop”, and at first I felt frozen like I was connecting with some kind of trauma, then when I asked my soul what it wants, I was told stillness. I rejoyced in knowing that something wasn’t wrong and that listening and spending more time in the stillness, would give me renewal and strength to face the hard times which might be ahead for me, as the art market and the peace work has slowed dramatically with the economic downturn. Stillness was available to me in each moment and risking “missing something” like a sales inquirey, or the news or the internet, was what I had to let go of. What a difference it made not to follow the political conflict streams and the news of war and economic crisis that pervades our media.

To go ones own way is a challenge yet the rewards are great. The path is authenticity. I hope this gives you an idea of what my mid time is about and what I am doing with the time. May peace and stillness be with you as well as your creative productive self. And if you find yourself in mid-time, know that you are not alone.

Here are some of my latest sculptures photographed around our home gallery. When I get enough of them completed, I’ll do a photo shoot with better lighting. Enjoy!