PAUL GRALEN

ARTIST STATEMENT

Steel has always been a favored medium - it is highly malleable yet incredibly strong, with the capacity to be drawn out into very graceful, even delicate form. Unlike any other material available to the artist, steel incorporates elements of brute strength and grace in a true paradox. It is a uniquely modern medium. In these works there is a unique modern connotation of shaped structural steel. Pipe, tube, and steel plate ordinarily used in industry and architecture is manipulated, fabricated, and combined in new ways to create sculptural form not ordinarily associated with industrial materials.

Totems are symbols of power and stability to me, serving as markers or sentinels, signposts along the journey of creative expression, each evoking a slightly different tone. The pieces have evolved as the series has progressed, from simple arrangements of basic geometric shapes to more complex arrangements of archetypal motifs, incorporating negative and positive space in counterpoint.

The "Structures" utilize scaling and architectural elements to suggest a model for a structure or even a stage set. These pieces are influenced by my background as a scenic designer and technical director, as well as by various house renovation projects I have undertaken in the past. I also have a long standing interest in the power of the metaphorical image of structures and dwellings and the roles these symbols play in the human psyche. Part architectural fantasy, part improvisational play, these sculptures operate on at least two scales simultaneously: that of a model for a large structure and that of an intimate sculptural object. Additionally, the structures often incorporate or echo elements of the totem in their compositional format, forming a bridge to the other series of sculptures.

Making sculpture provides me a channel to the joy of spirit and creativity. My work to bring to life these "arrangements of space" is a reflection of my continuous quest to better understand myself and my place in the world. When I am hard at work in the studio, absorbed in my labors, enveloped by the sound of machinery and bathed in the heat and light of the torch, I enter a timeless state, and the work flows out of a deeper place than is accessible under normal circumstances. This is the magic of making art, which has always held me spellbound.