Don Dougan, Marietta Georgia

Website

For me the process of making sculpture is varied — though I usually employ stone as one of the media, I rarely use stonecarving as the only process to create the piece of sculpture.

I am guided towards content by process. By discovering how the material is affected by the tools, I also discover what the material can express of its own nature. Through the relationship of nature and form, the material can be used to give meaning to the work. The physical nature of the material and how it can be manipulated directly affects conception of the work. The rational structuring of the concept arises from the material itself, following my understanding of the qualities the material relates to my senses.

When working in collaboration with other artists obviously their responses and understandings of the material come into play, and the dialog expands.  I look forward to the stimulation of working with other sculptors to produce evidence of this dialog — much as I enjoyed doing exquisite corpse drawings years ago. 

Julia Hill, Atlanta Georgia

Julia Hill is a Louisiana native working out of Atlanta , Georgia . After attending the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, she attended Newcomb College in New Orleans where she received a BFA in sculpture. Aesthetic inspiration in her work is drawn from both natural forms and manmade structures. Balancing the similarities and differences between the two reflects the long-term influence of growing up in a city bordered by swamp, ocean, refinery, and river, and volumes of visual memories engulfed by each.

The processes of growth and decay, construction and deconstruction, and chaos and rebirth make themselves prevalent in Julia's work. The exploration of polar opposites and the innate human addiction to differentiate between such forces weave through the balanced but often strange abstract forms.

Most comfortable in metal as a sculptural medium, the artist is also experienced and active in painting, ceramic, mixed media, performance, and creating works on paper through drawing and printmaking.

Matt Sigmon, Atlanta Georgia

www.mattsigmon.com

Phil Proctor, Atlanta Georgia

www.philproctor.com

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Phil Proctor is an artist who has been living and working in southeast Atlanta for the past four years. Originally from south Mississippi, he holds a BFA from the University of Southern Mississippi and an MFA from East Carolina University. Proctor has exhibited his sculpture throughout the nation as well as in other countries across Western Europe. In 2003 Phil was commissioned by a private development group in conjunction with the City of Atlanta and Marta to design and construct a public artwork, Linkage , which now stands at the Lindbergh City Center Marta station.

Proctor works with metals mostly and derives his colors and textures through the various materials and their natural reactions to their environment. He has executed many large-scale outdoor works as well as gallery sized indoor pieces. Proctor often utilizes found objects and recycled materials in his sculpture.

“These elements lend a unique characteristic to the work - as though it has a history. I enjoy using subtle recognizable elements; it brings the viewer to see objects from a different perspective.” In some of his sculpture, Proctor derives compositions from the structures of the natural world and universe. “I relate these forms and shapes to structures that I see in nature around me. I use sculpture to blur the perspectives of the macro and micro scales of objects in the universe. The viewer is unsure if the sculpture is inspired by subatomic structures or celestial bodies; the forms are so similar.”