In the Gallery This Month

Jack Alan Stewart - Sculpture
Dates: Friday, April 1st through Saturday, April 30th
Location: Main Gallery
Website Link: http://www.barnettradepost.com

Stumped!? Hand-Chiseled Hardwoods “Stumped!? Hand-Chiseled Hardwoods” is the title of Jack Alan Stewart’s one-man exhibit this April in the Main Gallery at Catamount Arts. Stewart, a well-known local artist and teacher, has designed many pieces especially for this new show, which will be on view for the entire month. A special reception honoring Stewart will be held at Catamount from 5:00pm – 7:00pm Friday, April 8. The public is cordially invited to attend this reception free of charge. Refreshments will be served.

Jack Stewart has been practicing art since he was a young child. His experience ranges from watercolor to oil painting, print making to etching, pen, pencil and charcoal to pastels. He has worked with wax, clay, cement, plaster of paris, pewter, lead, copper, zinc, marble, granite, soapstone, papier mache and many different varieties of hard and soft woods. He has created two-dimensional works, reliefs and free standing pieces. Stewart holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Swain School of Design with a major in sculpting. In addition, he holds a Masters of Art from Goddard College with a double major in sculpting and teaching. Stewart brings years of experience in the practice and instruction of drawing, watercolor painting and sculpting along with less familiar Japanese traditions such as sumi-e and calligraphy. Jack likes to quote an Eastern teaching saying: "Tell me and I forget; show me and I understand; let me experience and I know." It is the last part of the saying that is most important: the act of living, being and doing. In life, in art, it is important to practice over and over again so that what was at first most difficult and unnatural becomes a very wonderful and natural act. Sculpture is just one of Stewart’s many forms of artistic expression. “My sculptures are meant to be touched. They have organic shapes chiseled by hand and released from the wood,” Stewart said recently. “It’s important that we honor the original life-form of the tree from which each sculpture springs forth.” In sculpting, I attempt to bring out the wood’s natural beauty and the designs the life of the tree itself has already expressed,” he added. “If I don’t have a preconceived notion of what I’m hoping a finished piece will become, I ask the wood to direct me.” “And sometimes, despite any opinion I may have started a piece with, the tree has a very different idea of where I’m to take it as an art form!” he continued. “Much of my work is not consciously recognizable, and I’m often asked what a particular piece is. My answer is usually … wood,” he concluded. As a special feature of this exhibit, Stewart and his wife L.J. have also created a beautiful companion book that will be available for purchase. Copies of the book are now on display at Catamount.