CARL SWIDORSKI

"Clouds, Ice and Mountains"

alabaster, marble, wood and metal sculptures

ARTIST STATEMENT

I primarily am a self-taught sculptor who creates abstract forms in alabaster, marble, and wood.  My work is influenced by the sculpture of Isamu Noguchi, Barbara Hepworth, Dorothy Pepper, Brancusi, Henry Moore, and the  Zimbabwe sculpture movement.  I currently am exploring two themes in my sculpture.  The first juxtaposes the solidity of stone with the fragile and ephemeral nature of clouds and ice formations.  I try to convey both the dense materiality of stone and the spaces one sees when you look at the “holes” that appear and change shape as clouds move through the sky and/or ice slowly changes shape in the process of forming and reforming in mountain landscapes.  My second theme explores the relationship among different kinds of stone and materials such as metal, wire, and wood.  In these sculptures, the solidity of stone predominates and I try to limit my intervention on the “natural” surfaces of the stone.  These conceptual and process concerns also reflect my 35 years of hiking and cross-country skiing in the Adirondacks where I continually see sculptural formations in stone and ice.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Affiliated with the Carving Studio and Sculpture Center in West Rutland, Vermont  - studied with Mashiko Nakashima and Darcy Meeker.  Exhibited in annual members’ shows at the Carving Studio in 2006, 2007, and 2008.  Joint show in October/November 2008 at the National Upholstering Design Studio and Gallery in Albany with his wife,Theresa, a photographer.

Professor of Political Science, Department of History and Political Science at the College of Saint Rose, Albany, New York