The term essentialism originates
with Aristotle and the idea that
everything has an essential nature to it.
This idea was abused during the colonial
era by suggesting that different races
were limited by their very specific
essential natures and therefore were not
to be considered equal. Obviously an
erroneous concept. Later on into this
century the term has been used to
describe a certain concept in the
biological field—which is not of
primary concern to us in this writing,
except to say that all of these
definitions and uses of the term
essentialism are not what I mean by the
term.
My use of the term retains the
original Aristotelian idea of the
essential nature of things but applies it
more to the process than to the result.
For instance, I have found that every
idea that I have conceived for a
sculpture really had a primary impulse to
it, and that impulse or feeling was the
thing I had to stay focused on in order
to create the intended work. This sounds
quite easy but in the throes of
creativity one can easily be led down
errant paths which more often than not
end up changing the final work to
something other than what was originally
desired. There are artists who would use
this more unconscious path as their
primary method of creating a work of art,
but at some point in the process of
creating the work the artist will
crystallize what the piece is about and
need to make everything work towards that
end. In either case the work will have an
essentially defining character to it, if
the artist has used an Essentialist
approach.
The core of the idea of
essentialism as I have come to regard it
is an ability to go directly for the most
compelling stroke to achieve your
expression. Don't get sidetracked no
matter how appealing the new possibility
may appear. I don't add anything
unnecessary to the piece, especially when
the work is progressing. At this point in
the game it is most important to get the
work up to it's general dimensions before
you focus on any details. This does not
mean you can't explore when accidents
happen, but if you do you will risk
losing your main direction.
I have found that art works have
three fundamental aspects to them. There
is a technical, an emotional, and an
aesthetic side. The technical aspect is
the most obvious characteristic and
includes such things as the structural
integrity, the logic of its engineering,
and the competency of its construction.
The emotional aspect includes the
emotions one gets from the actual shape
of the forms in the work as well as the
feelings coming from the content or
storyline that may be expressed. Finally,
the aesthetic side deals with such things
as the composition, the line and mass
relationship, the surface treatment, and
the final placement of the work. When all
of these aspects have been given due
consideration in a work of art one gets
an essentialist piece.
Using an essentialist approach
does not guarantee a masterpiece, but it
does signify a certain quality of
expression and a marked distinction in
the final character of the work.
Essentialist work has a clarity and
directness that are lacking in other
works that seem overworked or full of
excesses that do not reinforce the
primary concept. As the name implies, be
essential. There will always be an
exquisite simplicity to essentialist work
no matter how complex the piece becomes.
Complex work can easily be confusing, but
if the artist has understood the
principles of essentialism, that final
complex piece will have clarity.
Lets consider for a moment one
of my sculptures and run through the
process I went through building it. The
work I will speak about is "Gaia" which can be
seen on this web site. This work was
originally commissioned by a diocese of
the Catholic Church, but I had already
been working on a concept for many years
about rendering images of womanhood as
seen through three aspects, one of which
is woman as a Madonna expressing purity
of mind and body. The other two aspects
of woman I wanted to explore are woman as
erotic, and woman as mysterious or inward
spirituality. When I received the
commission I was already involved in this
type of thinking so it was not like some
other commissions I receive that are not
in line with my own ideas. Let me add
here that usually the client gets the
best work when they let the artist have
as free a reign as possible or when the
commissioned idea is along the same track
as the artist is involved with in his own
creative world.
The initial problem of any work
of art is, of course, the inspired idea.
In this situation, the vision for the
piece came to me in a period of
contemplation; the next problem was to
draw it, which I immediately
accomplished. I then had to confront the
task of building the face in my
technique. My method of sculpture is
cutting sheet metal , then shaping it
with hammers, welding it together with a
mig arc welder, and then grinding the
excess off with an electric angle
grinder. This is a very labor intensive
process but one that is a fraction of the
cost of modeling in clay and then casting
in bronze or some other material. It is
also much faster and allows the artist to
change the finished work at any time
after completion; a quality I find most
effective in achieving satisfaction with
my ever-changing creative mind. Most of
my work is meant to last for a very long
time and so I often find that I don't
realize the true end until I have lived
with and studied the supposedly finished
work.
Let's return to the actual
building process. I proceeded to hammer Gaia's face out of bronze
and got fairly close to the drawing so I
was very encouraged that I could actually
build an over-life-sized figure in
stainless steel and bronze. Despite the
previous sculptures of the same
complexity, I had never attempted doing a
figure in stainless steel, a metal that
is much harder and stiffer than bronze or
mild steel. The main concern for the body
was that it be sensual but not sexual,
graceful but not erotic. The Madonnas
that I had researched were all either too
sexy or too stiff. Once I had created the
face and the cowling of the headpiece, I
needed to gauge the overall height of the
work so I temporarily raised the bust on
a pole, spot welding the pole to a base.
Then I began to build from the waist
upward including the arms. The
commissioned work was to be a fountain
with water pouring slowly from her right
hand (my decision) so obviously one hand
had to extend and the logical balance
would place the other hand in a gesture
that would give some movement to the
overall work.
When I was a young boy I always
admired a Japanese goddess figurine that
my parents owned. It had one hand
outstretched before it, palm upward and
the other hand crossing in an upward
gesture with the finger raised as if in
benediction and so I confess to the
influence despite the fact that my
Madonna (Gaia)is a bit different. What
amazes me most is the message that is
conveyed by the subtlest gesture of the
human hand and the almost infinite
variation that can occur. I did not build
the hands at this time, however. The
essentialist dictum is to keep building
the work without becoming involved in
detail that can distract and that can
easily become wrong later on. I also only
built the very front part of the
cowling/hair at this time since the view
from the side and rear could easily
change as one makes decisions of the
overall curves and straight lines. The
primary thing to go for is the main body
gesture. "Gaea" is in a
standing position, wearing a heavy robe.
There is nothing indicating in the
position of the legs and hips that would
suggest a figure beneath the cloth. I had
to create the feeling that this figure
was a human body beneath the robe even
though, if one looks closely, one can see
she is elongated and very abstract from
the waist down. I achieved the illusion
of a fully modeled figure by subtly
contouring the stomach, the thigh and the
breast and the shoulders. I have chosen
this work to demonstrate some of the
essentialist concepts not because it
represents the most Essential of my
sculptures, but because it is a very
complex work and required me to
incorporate all of the essentialist
elements that I have been working on.