ARTIST STATEMENT

"Having come from an artistic family, I began sculpting at a very early age. As an adolescent I spent a lot of time in a local quarry digging up clay and making things for friends and family. My father taught me to work with wood, building furniture and carving. In 1972 I enrolled at the Hill Fine Art Center were I studied under the great metal sculptor Orion Hargett.

I started out taking lessons and went on to teach photography and wood sculpture there and at Joliet Jr.College and eventually came to own and operate the Hill Fine Art Center until 1982. In those years I made and taught wood sculpture while I studied the masters of kinetic art and in 1998 decided to channel all my energy into embracing that medium. In the beginning I used copper but soon changed to stainless steel. I love the idea of taking this heavy and seemingly unyielding metal and transforming it into a piece that floats like a feather and will last for years and years.

I love kinetic sculpture because of all the different mechanisms there are to design with, from Calder’s mobiles to George Rickey’s conical movement and every thing in between. They give me a never ending pallet with which to stretch my imagination. I have been very fortunate to have had shows and commissions in Santa Fe, NM, Taos, NM, New Orleans LA, Houston, TX, Nashville, TN, Austin TX, Sonoma CA, Wimberley, TX, Fontana, CA, Johnson City, TX, and sold pieces to clients around the world. In 2008 I had the wonderful honor of being chosen by the McNay Fine Art Museum in San Antonio, TX to teach a kinetic sculpture workshop to 50 art teachers in preparation for their George Rickey exhibit.

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I plan to dedicate the rest of my time here on earth designing kinetic sculpture using every mechanism I can invent or find, from opposing pinwheels, to pendulums, to George Rickie’s conical movement. I hope you enjoy what I have done so far and visit me from time to time to see what I come up with in the future." ~Jim Lapaso