Sculpture Garden at the Southern Vermont Arts Center




	Sculpture Garden May 3-October 26, 2008 The Sculpture Garden is itself an artisitic achievement that encompasses constituent pieces of art. Visitors encounter pieces almost as soon as they enter the grounds, from Charles Ginnever’s monumental aluminum installation 4 the 5th (of Beethoven) in the lower meadow to the pieces exhibited on the grounds of Yester House Gallery, the Wilson Museum, the Arkell Pavilion and the Madeira Education Center.
	Free Opening Reception Saturday, May 3, 2008 2:00-4:00 p.m . George Sherwood Massachusetts artist George Sherwood merges a diverse background in fine arts, performing arts and engineering to create wind powered kinetic sculptures of reflective stainless steel. "My sculpture explores aesthetic systems of space, time and the dynamic relationships of objects in motion," says Sherwood. The choreography of each piece is governed by a set of basic movements, facilitated by an arrangement of rotating joints and aerodynamic surfaces. The wind provides an unpredictable element of improvisation. "Wind speed and direction, shades of light, time of day, precipitation and seasonal color interplay," says Sherwood, "to transform the qualities of movement and light."
	Joseph Fichter Working with the varied characteristics of steel, Joseph Fichter strives to render fluidity to his welded metal horses, to create forms of strength, grace and movement. An avid horseman – the building that houses his Putney, Vermont studio also houses several horses that he and his family ride – Fichter has developed an appreciation for the majestic shapes of a horse in motion, the rounded muscles and the angle of the walk, trot and gallop. "Watching horses move," says Fichter, "and seeing the unique qualities of each breed has shaped my interest in bringing together the beauty of horses with the possibilities of steel."
	Gregory Smith North Pownal, Vermont, native Gregory Smith began his sculpture studies with Isaac Witkin and Brower Hatcher at Bennington College, and later studied with Paul Aschenbach at the University of Vermont. He has worked in wood, clay and bronze, but his media of choice lately has been welded steel and, most recently, copper. His multi-award winning sculptures are at once whimsical and entirely serious, reserved yet resonant.
	Jack Chase Born in 1941, Jack Chase is an eighth-generation Vermonter who grew up on his grandfather’s hillside farm in Fletcher, Vermont. Between then and now, Chase racked up a West Point education, a graduate degree in geology, two combat tours of duty in Vietnam and a stint as a program manager for General Electric. He’s been sculpting – his medium at the time was abandoned farm machinery – since 1972. "Each part of a well-used but tired machine is to me a creature with its own personality," says the multi-award-winning sculptor.
	Richard Erdman In connection with the Vermont Marble Trail Project Richard Erdman creates abstract sculpture of both intimate and monumental scale in stone and bronze from his studios in Williston, Vermont, and Carrara, Italy. His art is known for its vitality, energy, and seemingly light buoyant motion, as if defying the material from which it is formed. The power and life the artist bestows in his work, both daring and subtle, conveys passion and strength, deeply engaging the viewer. Erdman will present "Between the Lines: Richard Erdman, Sculptor" on Saturday, July 26 from 1:00-3:00 p.m. in conjunction with a weekend-long celebration of the Vermont marble industry, part of the Vermont Marble Trail Project.