Algonquin Arts Centre Blog - Interview with Shane Wilson
ALGONQUIN ART CENTRE BLOG
Interview with Shane Wilson
Interview by Joel Irwin; Web Design by Matt Coles
i) Your works transform natural objects into complex, artistic expressions. Can you explain the influence of the “natural” over your artistic designs?
I carve animal-based natural found objects: skulls, antlers, horns and tusks. These objects inspire me by their inherent beauty and grace. Each one forms a unique, ‘living’ armature upon which I create my abstracted sculptures, giving form to my thoughts and feelings about existence, consciousness, and meaning.
In the case of the bronze ‘Silvi-Skullpture Series, 2011’, which will be displayed at the Algonquin Arts Centre, the ‘natural’ provides a very specific additional influence. It takes ‘Forests’ as its primary theme. The unique (1 of 1) bronzes employ design elements from trees native to Algonquin Park worked into animal skulls, also native to the Park, which symbolize the symbiotic relationship between the forests and much of life on this planet.
Black Bear Birch - Bronze
ii) Is the concept of metamorphosis significant for your works? If so, how?
I delight in taking found skulls, horns, antlers and bones and transforming them into fine art, expressions of the highest order, objects of rare beauty. The process of transformation is documented on my website, www.shanewilson.com, on the ‘In Progress’ page, where the metamorphosis from lichen covered bone to radiantly pure sculpture is revealed in word and image.
iii) The poet Gillian Sze has described a magical and enchanting quality to your work. What, do you think, is the source of such a quality in your pieces?
I confess both surprise and joy at some of the unique reactions to my work. It may be a sign that the works have taken on a life of their own, creating impressions and making connections not foreseen or intended. Like children do, once away from home and out in the world.
Freeman Patterson, the great Canadian photographer, describes a childhood experience during a recent Ideas interview on CBC which may shed some light on this question. Farm life left his family little spare time for niceties, including Christmas. But, according to Sherman, his mother wanted to make the day special, so “she trimmed the Christmas Tree after I and my younger sister went to bed. God knows I don’t think she slept that night, but she would trim it with such magnificence and care that it was sheer magic when we woke up on Christmas morning. We thought Santa Claus had trimmed the tree.”
Branch Magazine - Wild - Feature Artist
Branch Magazine is a national quarterly online magazine devoted to exploring the rifts and overlaps of visual and literary arts while showcasing emerging and professional Canadian artists and creators. Branch features contemporary literature, art and design and aims to produce a compelling panoply of art in different media. Kudos to founding editors Gillian Sze (Literary Editor) and Rob Huynh (Roberutsu - Visual Arts and Design Editor). Shane is the Featured Artist in this Issue.
WILD
Guest editorial by Alison Strumberger
When Gillian and Rob asked me to guest edit the Wild issue of Branch I was stoked...
It is the Canadian Wild that makes for such a talented bunch of maple syrup-loving, toque-wearing, snowshoe-owning, campfire-building writers and artists, and we are pleased as punch to be showcasing a number of them in this issue...
We are pleased to spotlight returning artist, Shane Wilson, whose intricate sculptures will astound you. We ask him about the ins-and-outs of sculpting and his relationship with his materials...
Thoreau once said, "All good things are wild, and free." We don't like to brag (much), but this issue is pretty darn good. Enjoy, and let your imagination run wild.
FEATURE ARTIST - SHANE WILSON
Q & A WITH SHANE WILSON
If you were an animal, which animal would you be and why?
If I were an animal ... well, I am! The thing I treasure about being a human animal is the ability to think deeply about life and to appreciate the deep thoughts of others of my species.
However, if I were to choose to be a different animal, I think I'd choose to be one of the great whales. When I learned that US Naval tracking stations had been recording whale sounds for years, that a Blue Whale, departing from northern waters, can create a sonic pulse illuminating the entire Atlantic Basin and navigate accordingly, I just thought that was an amazingly cool thing and wanted to be one. And it goes without saying that whales think deep thoughts. After all, who can forget that brilliant treatise on existence worked out by the improbably created sperm whale as it plummeted through the atmosphere of an alien planet?
Why did you become an artist?
Like Jonah fleeing the will of God, I pursued a number of proper careers (briefly and with varying degrees of success) before being tossed overboard for the last time and swallowed body and soul by the great art leviathan.
I make art because I must. Yet still I try to avoid the making of it on a daily basis, paradoxically finding peace and well being only in the throes of creation. I like to think of this dynamic as a war between the right and left brain - the left, the everyday practical portion where I spend most of my life, does not want to relinquish control to the right, the mysterious region of creativity where 'the everyday', including time itself, does not exist. Perhaps the struggle finds expression in my art, in the notion of 'Duality'.
Aristotle said that art takes nature as its model. You model nature into art. Do you remember the first time you carved an antler? How did that begin?
Antlers, bones and skulls are natural sculptural wonders. Not just in the sense that wind and weather shape a rock or a tree, but more so. These are shapes that are sculpted and inhabited by Life. When I encountered the amazing antler art of Maureen Morris in 1985, I realized that it was possible to combine my interest in sculptural creation with these living sculptures.
What are you proudest of achieving as an artist?
A good day in the studio.
Some sculptors say that they can see the sculpture in a piece of wood or rock. Is that the case for you?
Sure. But the sculpture seen 'within' the stone is usually drawn from an interaction with the sculptor's own inner catalogue of three dimensional or relief imagery, mentally overlaid or fitted into the stone until a match is achieved, a kind of psychic superimposition. So it's a two way street, a unique interaction between the stone and the sculptor. I especially enjoy the challenge of this process as it applies to antler, skull, horn or tusk.
Your work is so detailed and refined. It must be a very long and painstaking process.
Were you always a patient person? Do you think your art taught you to be patient?
When working there is no sense of time, hence no need of patience. Right brain territory. Patience, however, is a gift I strongly encourage in collectors and commissioners of my work.
What inspires you?
Excellence and originality in all its manifestations. I am particularly inspired by great music played live. When the music flows over me, I see a cascading multiplicity of form. Sculptural problems resolve before my 'eyes'.
What are you working on now?
I am currently in the process of creating a large commissioned sculpture featuring the Short Eared Owl, entitled: "Short Eared Parliament." I'm about six months along, with another year to go. While this work progresses (I post photos and comments on my site as I go along) I'll be thinking about my next sculpture, entitled "Integration", which will mark a return to the completely abstract theme of 'Duality', weaving the angles and curves of earlier carvings into a single, unified design. The medium for this work will be a massive moose rack (152 cm wide), discovered atop a rocky Yukon mountainside.
Give us a quote by Delacroix.
In addition to posting work related updates on Twitter, I enjoy sharing pertinent quotes about life and art from artists I have been reading. Delacroix is pure gold:
"The mature artist despises everything that does not lead to a more vital expression of his thought."
CHON Interview with Shane Wilson about Sculpture Unveilings
LINK: Listen to this CHON FM Radio interview on YouTube
Text:
Peter Novak, CHON FM Host - Canadian Roots
It's exactly sixteen minutes before one o'clock on Canadian Roots, from CHON FM.
This evening in Whitehorse, at the Yukon Arts Centre, there will be an unveiling of some new works of sculpture. Joining me now is the artist, Shane Wilson. Read More...
CBC Radio One Whitehorse: Al Foster interiews Shane Wilson on Yukon Seasons Unveiling
LINK: Listen to this CBC Radio interview on YouTube
(moose antler skull carving, moose antler skull sculpture)
Text:
Al Foster, CBC Reporter
There was a special unveiling last evening at the Canada Games Centre. The Yukon's Tourism Minister, Elaine Taylor, was on hand for the event.
Yukoners were celebrating the return of "Yukon Seasons". Read More...
'Yukon's Own Thomas Crowne Affair' - CBC Radio One - Q Featurette
LINK: Listen to this Q Featurette on YouTube
(moose antler skull carving, moose antler skull sculpture)
Text:
Sandy Coleman, CBC Announcer - Introduction
Well, a massive power outage, that plunges much of the Yukon into darkness, security cameras rendered useless. While staff are resetting alarms at the Canada Games Centre, a $50,000 piece of art mysteriously goes missing. Coincidence, or a version of the Yukon's very own 'Thomas Crowne Affair'? Here's some reaction from the artist, Shane Wilson: Read More...
'Valuable Art Missing' - Nancy Thompson interviews Shane Wilson - CBC Radio Whitehorse, Noon Show
LINK: Listen to this interview on YouTube
(moose antler skull carving, moose antler skull sculpture)
Text:
Nancy Thompson, Host, CBC Radio Whitehorse Noon Show
A valuable piece of art went missing from the Canada Games Centre, this weekend at some point early Saturday morning. A thief or thieves made off with an intricate antler carving. There was also a power outage around the same time. Police are reviewing security cameras, but the person most surprised might be the artist who crafted the work. Shane Wilson spent three years carving the piece he calls 'Yukon Seasons'. We've reached him on the line from BC. Hello there. Read More...