Laura Priebe
Laura Priebe
Email: laurakpriebe@gmail.com
Phone: 262-923-0558
Water's reflective light qualities and sensual liquid motion were my initial pursuits when creating sculpture assemblages out of vacumn formed buterate, reflective mylar, plaster modulations, integrated wire spirals and a 6 foot by 4 foot buff clay series during the 1970's.
The next exploration with media was what I considered poetry constructions. I started working with wax models and casting them into bronze, using direct silca sand molds. Using geometric divisions within structural anatomies, as well as, the addition of textured surface qualities from plants, industrial materials and cloth allowed a wonderful play with composition that easily adapted into bronze medium. The geometric and organic compositions became synonymous with personal walls, bodies, streets, rules, organic growth and spaces. Each sculpture was a personal poem or story constructed in three dimensions. Each sculpture provided a sense of home, safety and formulated a sense of groundedness within the unexpected.
Returning to waves and their theraputic calming motion, I found the liquidity of wax embodied both the final sculptural qualities and the tactile methods needed to create the sensual structures I sought to convey. Wedgewave is a model for a bronze crest of a wave meant to be installed onto a landscaped hill and leaping toward the edge. The force and power is emulated by the size and liquid flow of the hill base while the ebbed crest is stopped in endless time. Wedgewave was selected from a series of other clay models and was commissioned by Hartung Park Community Association (2008. Due to financial difficulties the grant I wrote and acquired from the Greater Milwaukee Arts Foundation for the Wedgewave was reallocated to other park provisions.
During this same time, Hartung Park Community Association also commissioned an educational series of seven aquatic Silurian creatures as bronze sculptures. The 450 million year old Silurian creatures were discovered in the Hartung Quarry prior to landscaping the park. Each sculpture became a donation level option toward park provisons. This series was considered a functional part of the landscape and funding was provided by a Department of Natural Resouces Grant provision. The research and development of these qualities became a creative investigation of form, function and syncopated fluid movement for each creature within a liquid environment. All seven, consisting of Calymene trilobite, brachiopod rugosa coral, cephalopod, tabulate coral, crinoid, and eurypterid were mounted on dolomite bases and can be walked around on the prairie grass hillside today.
The water series sculptures available for exhibition are, WedgeWave, Blackwave, Liquid Fall, Calymene Trilobite, Moroccan Trilobite and the Cephalopod Critter.
A recent exhibiton of these sculptures was given by the Delafield Art Center, Delafield, Wi. from April through June, 2012.
Presently (2012 spring-fall), MyYinYang, bronze water fountain, is on
exhibit in the annual garden pond at the Boerner Botanical Gardens in Hales
Corners, Wi. MyYinYang is an embodiment of both the tear and abundant blossoming.
It is a benchmark for me as having come full circle with my water series.
An ownership of water as the most important natural resource
provision securing life and health on earth has evolved into a personal
visual language. Wedgewave, Liquid Fall and MyYinYang each are visual
translations of physiological metaphors. We are water.
Email: laurakpriebe@gmail.com
Phone: 262-923-0558
Water's reflective light qualities and sensual liquid motion were my initial pursuits when creating sculpture assemblages out of vacumn formed buterate, reflective mylar, plaster modulations, integrated wire spirals and a 6 foot by 4 foot buff clay series during the 1970's.
The next exploration with media was what I considered poetry constructions. I started working with wax models and casting them into bronze, using direct silca sand molds. Using geometric divisions within structural anatomies, as well as, the addition of textured surface qualities from plants, industrial materials and cloth allowed a wonderful play with composition that easily adapted into bronze medium. The geometric and organic compositions became synonymous with personal walls, bodies, streets, rules, organic growth and spaces. Each sculpture was a personal poem or story constructed in three dimensions. Each sculpture provided a sense of home, safety and formulated a sense of groundedness within the unexpected.
Returning to waves and their theraputic calming motion, I found the liquidity of wax embodied both the final sculptural qualities and the tactile methods needed to create the sensual structures I sought to convey. Wedgewave is a model for a bronze crest of a wave meant to be installed onto a landscaped hill and leaping toward the edge. The force and power is emulated by the size and liquid flow of the hill base while the ebbed crest is stopped in endless time. Wedgewave was selected from a series of other clay models and was commissioned by Hartung Park Community Association (2008. Due to financial difficulties the grant I wrote and acquired from the Greater Milwaukee Arts Foundation for the Wedgewave was reallocated to other park provisions.
During this same time, Hartung Park Community Association also commissioned an educational series of seven aquatic Silurian creatures as bronze sculptures. The 450 million year old Silurian creatures were discovered in the Hartung Quarry prior to landscaping the park. Each sculpture became a donation level option toward park provisons. This series was considered a functional part of the landscape and funding was provided by a Department of Natural Resouces Grant provision. The research and development of these qualities became a creative investigation of form, function and syncopated fluid movement for each creature within a liquid environment. All seven, consisting of Calymene trilobite, brachiopod rugosa coral, cephalopod, tabulate coral, crinoid, and eurypterid were mounted on dolomite bases and can be walked around on the prairie grass hillside today.
The water series sculptures available for exhibition are, WedgeWave, Blackwave, Liquid Fall, Calymene Trilobite, Moroccan Trilobite and the Cephalopod Critter.
A recent exhibiton of these sculptures was given by the Delafield Art Center, Delafield, Wi. from April through June, 2012.
Presently (2012 spring-fall), MyYinYang, bronze water fountain, is on
exhibit in the annual garden pond at the Boerner Botanical Gardens in Hales
Corners, Wi. MyYinYang is an embodiment of both the tear and abundant blossoming.
It is a benchmark for me as having come full circle with my water series.
An ownership of water as the most important natural resource
provision securing life and health on earth has evolved into a personal
visual language. Wedgewave, Liquid Fall and MyYinYang each are visual
translations of physiological metaphors. We are water.
