leif low-beer - They fled with all their art, though some got left behind / 1939...

leif low-beer

In a sculpture park, people look at art, art looks at people and people look at one another. Like a Saul Steinberg dinner party, in which each individual is defined by the nature of their rendering, a sculpture park is a gathering of personalities. I approach my work both literally and metaphorically as a gathering place — a place where a collection of languages and marks come together, where I can explore the relationships between a variety of objects on the page. The lightness and spontaneity of drawing makes it a good medium for such an exploration. The white of the paper creates breathing room, space for a crowd of thoughts and marks to hang out. (I have always liked the idea of a room cluttered by beautiful objects sitting next to an empty room, with clean lines — both under the same roof.) Likewise, in my work, eyes can play between light and dark, foreground and background, people and objects. Much remains ambiguous, allowing the viewer to bring his or her own experience to the work, an experience that will hopefully evolve and expand over time. There is something rich about a sculpture park that is suggested, imagined but never realized.