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January 1974. Marble, stainless. Dimensions: 68 × 18 × 12 in (173 × 46 × 30 cm). Private Collection.
Vertical Series #4, the tallest work in the series, continues my early exploration of vertical form and the expressive relationship between positive and negative space. One of the last carved marble works created while I was an undergraduate at Kent State, the sculpture reflects the influence of early twentieth-century modernists Jean Arp, Henry Moore, and particularly Constantin Brancusi’s Bird in Space. Two slender marble elements rise in close parallel, creating a narrow vertical void that expands into a circular opening near the top, making the negative space as visually active as the stone itself.
I retained much of the geometry of the original quarry blocks, reflecting both Brancusi’s respect for the integrity of the stone and my growing awareness of the Minimalist aesthetic of the 1960s and ’70s prevalent at Kent State—an approach I later affectionately called “Midwest minimalism.” The work brings these influences together while advancing an idea that would remain central to my sculpture: using the space between separate elements not simply as emptiness, but as an active sculptural form.
January 1974. Marble, stainless. Dimensions: 68 × 18 × 12 in (173 × 46 × 30 cm). Private Collection.
Vertical Series #4, the tallest work in the series, continues my early exploration of vertical form and the expressive relationship between positive and negative space. One of the last carved marble works created while I was an undergraduate at Kent State, the sculpture reflects the influence of early twentieth-century modernists Jean Arp, Henry Moore, and particularly Constantin Brancusi’s Bird in Space. Two slender marble elements rise in close parallel, creating a narrow vertical void that expands into a circular opening near the top, making the negative space as visually active as the stone itself.
I retained much of the geometry of the original quarry blocks, reflecting both Brancusi’s respect for the integrity of the stone and my growing awareness of the Minimalist aesthetic of the 1960s and ’70s prevalent at Kent State—an approach I later affectionately called “Midwest minimalism.” The work brings these influences together while advancing an idea that would remain central to my sculpture: using the space between separate elements not simply as emptiness, but as an active sculptural form.