Loy Martin
March 1st - 31st 2010
LOY MARTIN
Most obviously these pieces are collectively a celebration of wood. More accurately perhaps, they celebrate the relationship between light and wood when the surface has been polished by human hands to reveal graphic patterns and schemes of refraction (called chatoyance) that lie intrinsic in the cellular structures of trees. Furthermore, I have also tried to “place” these timbers in relation to the earth, here represented by stone. The massive stone, so firmly bound to the earth by gravity, gives way to the relatively delicate woods in tenuous balances that, at times, almost seem to question gravity itself. And as we ascend this ladder of relationships, from earth to stone to timber to light, the intrusion of the artisan increases: the material progressively becomes more “worked.” My hope is that the result is a piece that “shows off” both a little bit of nature and a little bit of human arrangement and skill in a very quiet way. I’m seeking a very still and peaceful poise for these pieces, not artistic flare in the usual sense.