Limestone Mixed Media

Travertine Alphabet Created for Timeless Remnants — the collaborative exhibition between Grège Gallery and CWART — this travertine relief captures the essence of Conrad Willems’ scu...

Marble, granite and limestone sculpture

First Bite,female figure holding apple,garden of eden,bronze sculpture Williams First Bite, female figure holding apple, garden of eden, bronze sculpture Expressing Situations and Beings in Human Form Sculptor Troy Williams unites the timeless and the contemporary in sculptures of rare beauty and meaning Beyond all the narrative potential of the three obvious physical dimensions of Troy Williams’ sculpture there are many other considerations that contribute greatly to the enjoyment, appreciation, and understanding of his entrancing 360-degree works of figurative art. Among these are the emotional responses and intellectual interpretations that first go into the artist’s creative process and then into every subsequent spectator’s viewings at least somewhat differently each time. Some artists insist on leaving these entirely up to each viewer, but Williams is glad to enrich the experience by inviting the viewer in for a little insight into the artist’s intention. Certain ambiguities and unintended provocations might otherwise arise, as Williams uses original combinations of materials or ideas in highly original ways. For the sophisticated clientele of Glenn Green Galleries Williams specializes in figurative and facial sculptures hewn from fallen woods he finds while running near his home in the mountains of north central New Mexico. Williams has in the past worked with exotic woods, but now avoids them in a desire to protect the people, plants, and animals that depend on a vibrant, healthy, and unexploited local ecosystems. Finding dead and downed wood also introduces an element of serendipitous chance into the sculptor’s process of selection and inspiration. Nature provides an exquisite mass of workable solids, surfaces, patterns, and curves in cottonwood and the many varieties of juniper this sculptor favors. Troy Williams simply rescues these from the elements and then elevates them to timeless treasures by relating them to themes that express our deepest nature. Awake to the most beautiful twists, turns, and striations already present in these found mediums, Williams is naturally and passionately drawn to every stage of freeing the underlying sculpture. Following the wood’s ingrained tendencies is always a creative guide for Williams. Growing up in an Indiana farming community, his dad a family practice doctor and his mother an artist, Troy has always felt an affinity for the earth and especially its mountains. He initially came west to study agriculture at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, attracted there by a setting where his athletic nature could find full expression. His interest in an agriculture career gave way to his love of the mountains. In order to continue living in them and enjoy the hiking, climbing, and running he also loved, Troy worked for several years in a solar business, progressing from manufacturing to installations to design. On a fortuitous errand for a cousin back home, Troy happened into silversmithing and began producing simple, hammered ear cuffs. At this point the artistic nature that he had earlier suppressed in favor of athletics began to emerge strongly, and he expanded into more complex designs as he learned and mastered goldsmithing and lapidary. Another quantum leap occurred when he made his first copper face for a pendant. He couldn’t wait to see the face on a larger scale and was eager for the challenge of learning another art. He began sculpting metal, then stone, then came upon wood as his medium of choice. Wood had immediate allure: scented, expanding, contracting, and seeming to breathe. Williams was seduced by its warmth, the play of light on the complexion of its grain, and the inherent life force so evident in wood. He also learned to coax creative advantage from some of wood’s pitfalls, like soft spots, tricky grains composed of woody xylem and softer phloem; and to avoid the conditions that make it splinter. A quality of segmentation or fragmentation characterizes Williams’s sculptures and provides great visual satisfaction along with intriguing thematic provocation. One is struck by the beautiful outlines that might never be apparent had Williams not removed segments or created interior voids expressly to reveal them. When sculpting a face, Williams focuses on aspects that are mask-like, floating, and alive with contours that might not be visible were the artist to sculpt the full head. The segmentation in his exquisitely refined female figurative works incorporates solids, hollows, and curvilinear elements for reasons that are at once artistic, philosophical, and experiential. Besides attending basic college art classes, to understand more fully the human figure, Troy spent a summer in Europe...

CUBE, PYRAMID & SPHERE is a major work created over a five-year period. It is a variable installation, composed of 4 geometric sculptures of high-fired clay pigmented with oxides, a block of wood found in the ocean, river gravel, limestone, and slate shattered to fragments. Note the surface textures, the ground of natural stone, the colors black, umber, copper and tan throughout, the pattern of slate fragments. CUBE, PYRAMID & SPHERE is characteristic of Wortman's practice – warm, contemporary, uniquely crafted, yet speaks to ancient, primitive traditions of art-making that cross cultures and histories. Highly attuned to the art of Africa, the Middle East, India and Asia, his forms are organic abstracts with masculine and feminine attributes that resonate together as a pleasing enigma. They make sense immediately, yet never give up all their secrets. CUBE, PYRAMID & SPHERE was exhibited at BASE: Immersive Art Experiences, Industry City, Brooklyn, NY, 2017. It was also reproduced in Tussle Magazine, alongside "An Interview with Harold Wortsman...

FOR THE OLD ONES, a ceramic sculpture of high-fired clay pigmented with oxides, sitting on a slab of limestone. It is a recent work by artist Harold Wortsman. Note the blending of volumetric and organic form in this work, the mark-making and perforations on the surface, the striking colors of black and copper in variable stripes – it is characteristic of his practice – warm, contemporary, uniquely crafted, yet speaks to ancient, primitive traditions of art-making that cross cultures and histories. Highly attuned to the art of Africa, the Middle East, India and Asia, his forms are organic abstracts with masculine and feminine attributes that resonate together as a pleasing enigma. They make sense immediately, yet never give up all their secrets. From Harold Wortsman – "With sculpture, my material of choice is high-fired clay. Pieces are first low-fired in an electric kiln. I do not use glazes. Instead, I use oxides applied to the bisqued (low-fired) clay. As with a tattoo, oxides permit the surface underneath to breathe—like naked skin. The work is then high-fired in a gas kiln with double reduction to cone 10. The final temperature is 2,300 degrees F. At a certain point, oxygen intake is reduced to the kiln. Because the fire has reached a critical mass, it needs oxygen and chemically takes it from the clay and the oxides painted on. Like a jazz improvisation, each kiln load comes out slightly different." From Jonathan Goodman, Poet & Art Critic – "Wortsman re-examines ancient and modern traditions in light of what it means to make art." – Tussle Magazine, July 2019. Harold Wortsman is a sculptor and printmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. He “creates forms that bring to mind archaic cult objects and exude a quiet concentrated strength.” (Argauer Zeitung, Switzerland). His work, an edgy mix of freedom and clarity, can be found in public and private collections in the US, including The Library of Congress, Yale University, The New York Public Library Print Collection, The New York Historical Society, Smith College, Indiana University’s Lilly Library, Brandeis University, The Newark Public Library Special Collections Division, and the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum Print Archive. Also in private and public collections in Europe, including the Municipal Collection of the City of Brugg, Switzerland. Harold studied at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, with sculptor George Spaventa...