By Rus Geh
What is life for? I've constantly asked this question. I usually answer by saying everything should add to the potential to make art.
I grew up in Putnam, a small farming town in up state New York. It was the land between Lake George and Lake Champlain where my creative relationship with environment began to develop; it was enhanced by my classical training as an artist, which I recieved at the University of Hartford, I entered the real world of sculpting, working at the highly renowned art foundry, Tallix Morris Singer.
I've always been a creative thinker. The process of Sculpting is an integral part that cannot be seperated from my being. I've molded my lifestyle in a unique way; always in the pursuit of that which produces images to fit a vision of what art can and should do. The result is sculpture that is more than mere decoration; it is spiritual. His artwork encourages a better connection between human kind and the environment we must harmonize with.
Constantly, I seek new stimuli. For the last ten years I have not spent more than six months in any place consecutively. It’s been important to be immersed in nature and as a result, I’ve spent my summer months as a commercial river guide, guiding people though some of the premire river canyons of the western United States for the last ten years. My art studios have been located in New York. California. Washington and the Florida keys, working on my original art. At art galleries, in the outdoors, living on a sailboat, or while living in the back of my truck.
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The important beginnings of my sculpture are the seed images; they come to my mind sometimes in the form of poetry, emotions, drawings, or conversations. I’ll speak of the story behind a few of my works.
Early in my art career I produced the sculpture Soulmates. This work of art wouldn't have happened were it not for the experience; that led up to this line of poetry. The sun burned though the mist, only our souls remained. My lover and I were on a weeklong canoe trip in the Adirondack lakes; after paddling under the darkness of night, we took refuge on a mist-enshrouded point of land. Lying in a bed of moss and pine needles we shared the energy that unites lovers eternaly. The sun began to penetrate our sanctuary of passion, and once again we set off paddling the placid waters. My work that came from that magical time speaks of the eternal unification of lovers. Thank you, Robin.
This is one those art works that has been a long time in the making. Growing up, I used to collect sap from a maple grove to make maple syrup. This process has always had a very special significance in my life. The last year I made syrup was 1998, and that spring started to feel the last time I'd be doing that. I started to spend more time in that maple grove. You could feel the coming of spring, and I'd lay there on that damp earth watching the world pass by from the vantage point of those wonderful maple trees. The sound of crows was always present, and into flight their calls would take me; I would stand there, rooted to the ground, and yet soar to the heavens. The piece for me is about being grounded there in that maple grove, and because of that connection I was able to journey heaven-bound.
 Pictured here is the artist working on the clay original at a showing of his relief sculpture |
Community has been a reoccurring theme in my work. My first relief piece, called Community, is about the interaction of energy that happens between a child and his or her support network. More recently, I've been working on a three-dimensional variation on the community theme. This thought was refined in a coffee shop in Bellingham, Washington. As usual, I started up a conversation to talk about art, humankind and the environment with someone I've never met. That day's conversation was about focusing the attention of the average person to the need of a greater sense of community. When done, the piece will speak of the different levels of the human community, on this very limited and over-stressed planet.
All the river trips I do have the potential to produce thoughts and images that can become artwork. The last river trip I did in 2001 was on the Grand Canyon. I had lots to write and sketch about. From my experience on this trip I've already produced the relief work The Energy Within; soon I'll start the free-standing bronze based on that same seed image. That image started with a dream that I wouldn't see clearly until four days later in a place I'd never seen
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before. In my dream I'm aged, like the canyon itself. Standing on the rim, I was poised to make a leap of faith to a more spiritual place, in tune with nature. Unable to decide, I split in two; the other half stayed behind in a world of materialsm. What was revealed in the splitting of myself was the very energy of my being, some would say my soul; to me it was the raw potential of humankind to be reborn. The place where I was able to re visit that dream and see it for its real potential was this side canyon, a very spiritual place to the natives that once lived there. The native Americans believed that if they could leap across the small shear-walled canyon, they would land in the afterlife. Making the leap of faith they would leave a handprint as a sign that they made their journey.