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Jack Sewell
Jack Sewell is showing his work in Cloverdale for the first time this year with “Quest II”, a sculpture constructed of steel rods that is designed to vibrate when touched. “Quest II’ shows the figure of a man who is in the midst of an extreme effort to attain a goal, a man who is exerting every bit of his energy toward achieving that goal. There is a question as to whether or not he will reach the goal because his movement is in an arc that could lead him downward or upward, depending on what happens next. His facial expression shows a gleeful focus, and he appears certain he will attain the goal. Sewell views the world in such a way that he finds artistic merit inherent in all the various elements of life. Images appear every day that he feels compelled to bring out of his head to share with others. The time he spends creating these images is intense, stimulating, thought provoking, frustrating, and ultimately, rewarding. His work tends toward representational imagery, and he also uses abstract expressions to illustrate particular properties of the image. His work centers on the beauty, grace, movement, struggle or humor of the human condition. Sewell describes himself as a carver. “By this, I mean that when I’m creating a sculpture, I start with a mass of material that is larger than I need, and I carve away all the material I don’t want, and leaving the image behind. For some projects I use a primarily constructionist process, by which I begin with nothing, and bring the materials into alignment and fix them in place to create the image. I usually combine the techniques and construct, then deconstruct, the material, leaving behind the image.” He believes the power of an image is in the curves. “I have very little use for straight lines or flat planes in my work. For me, the only real representation of a line from point A to point B is a curved line. Curves are where the power of the image lies. Curves are the way nature moves. Curves are where the mathematics gets complex, and math still only approximates the lines that nature produces. My goal in capturing an image is to get the relationships between all of the curving lines and curved planes into alignment.” Sewell spent 20 years as an emergency room nurse, where he saw every kind of trauma and injury, sickness and disease. He has witnessed great tragedy and even greater heroics. His sculpture reflects the beauty, fragility and power of the human experience. His work is in private collections in the United States, Europe, and South America, and can be seen at museums, exhibits and galleries throughout California. He has been the recipient of several commissions and awards. |
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Photo by Tedd Peterson |