art esprit

Ah February...the time when having sculpture in your backyard makes the midwinter thaw seem like summer just isn't that far away. Here is something to ponder whilst the snow turns to mud again near your herb garden. "Down the Drain" by Jerry Glynn. A sculpture which had a home in a backyard at the beach... until Alison Cleveland called us up and told us about this humble quiet man. We drove down to the beach and found Jerry. His yard and home were filled with these fantastical, found object sculptures. This work "Down the Drain" stands 4 feet tall and is perfectly at home in a large foyer or backyard gathering further patina. Jerry has a knack for seeing modern machines and antiquated human forms in bits of wire, draincovers, driftwood, nuts and bolts and whatever else washes up from the Atlantic. See, Jerry finds his materials on the beach. Has for years. Keeps them in a storage area in his backyard until he needs just that piece. That day always seems to come for him too. While we were touring his personal museum I came across a small sculpture which I felt needed a new home - mine. When I asked Jerry what the piece was called, Jerry said he didn't really have a name, but somehow I already knew his name: "Java Man" So Java Man came home with me that day and has peered through his monocular eye fingering his wild mane of telephone wire now for over two years. He speaks to the part of us all who wants to take a bit of this and a bit of that and become much more than the sum of our parts.

Jerry's sculptures are so different and so personal to him that I believe each one has much more to offer than seen by first glance. "Down the Drain" has a large heavy swinging drain cap suspended from the large copper pipe hoop he has constructed. When placed outside, the drain cap moves with the breeze. Something which you don't see often - heavy metal floating on air. This gentle man has taken our society's cast offs and has breathed new life into them. He brings a little of himself to each new object he creates and tells a story about where they have been.

The word for the day is.... Bend...as in wire, cooperation and the rules.