James Fuhrman
Caldera: Nature is Neither Still Nor Quiet
Burned mixed media, 39 x 28”, 2012
Painting with fire. Oil laden brush to create a space of intensity. The title
expresses a seeming anomaly: many people think of nature as serene and gentle,
whereas it is always dynamic, moving and changing.
Mountain Path Gate
Beech, 30 x 48 x 11½”, 2012
Remnants of a 300 year old beech tree from Pendle Hill Quaker Center It is always
the “space between” that interests me, that creates the contemplative space.
This piece is an expression of tension and balance that seems to be always present
in me and which I found confirmed in studies of Martha Graham dance technique.
Connecting to the natural invites “still and quiet’ for reflection and connecting
to the ‘natural’.
Samurai Resting
Still and Quiet -Reflection
Tomorrow Will Come
Cedar, 27 x 34 x 18”, 2007
Creating a still and quiet space based on calligraphic paintings of Martha Graham Dance technique. Using the material to tell me what it wants to be.
Mountain of Time:
Lines of rock and tree
Dream an Unknowable Future.
Portraits of deep time.
Maquette for 105 x 140 x 48” sculpture
Photograph of full size sculpture, 24 x 22”
Coming to understand what is ‘mountain’: a consideration of time, deep geologic time, and my place within that.
I am profoundly involved in creating spaces… real and metaphoric …spaces for gathering…spaces that ask viewers—to pause and listen—to make connections with one another and to the world around them.
These spaces, dolmen-like sculptures—vessels—structures—installations--‘spaces- that-hold’, begin with my calligraphic ink painting—Japanese enso (circle) forms. At any scale from two inches to 50 feet, the works invite viewers to enter, physically and psychically, emotionally. In recent installations (Ithaca, NY, Bellingham, WA, Wallingford, PA, Ridgely, MD), the spaces became gathering places for spontaneous groups and organized community happenings.
The work is infused with a sense of deep geologic timelessness…and connection to the ground. The textures expose, literally and figuratively, the inner essence of the pieces lending a feeling for mass and rootedness that has emerged from my strong sense of the earth— supporting, anchoring, continuing.
In the cedar and oak sculptures, the lines and forms of tree growth patterns are akin to aeons of rock layers —the earth’s depth-- and the galactic swirls of a Hubble telescope image.
The fluid forms in the welded and cut steel pieces echo volcanic processes…the flowing of liquid rock.
The human element permeates the work in the gestural mark of the form. In recent work it is as though I am drawing the edges of the earth.
Like the 11th Century Chinese Northern Sung painters (Li Cheng, Buddhist Temple in the Hills, 940-967), I see humans as a part –a small part over time—of the natural world.
The written word –poetry— emphasizes the work’s profound connection to the earth putting word to the visual ideas of the sculptures and Zen paintings. These writings are reflections and meditations on the cycles and arrows (progression) of time. Just as the sculpture, they are observations that ask to be seen in the smallest as well as the largest view
One oak leaf tumbles Sails, spirals, swirls to the ground.
Slow.
In its own world.
Rest.
Of late, this visual/conceptual sensibility has become a vehicle to express a lifelong sense of responsibility to issues of social consciousness and justice …exploring the ideas that lead to resolution…to social consciousness connections among peoples …to connections between the earth and the people and justice: Apart/A Part, a Public Art installation in Philadelphia explores the sense of belonging to or being separate from your neighbors, your community.
19 November 2014
View more of James Fuhrman's work at www.jfuhrman.com