Christopher Ward Art
Born in Saudi Arabia and raised in Tehran, Iran and Santa Rosa, California, Ward lived in San Francisco and Berkeley after graduating from Cornell in 1978. Ward then studied at California State University, Fresno where he received a Master of Fine Arts in 1982. In the 1980s, Ward worked in Manhattan before marrying Julia Myer, and moving to Philadelphia in 1990. Together, he and Julia live in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia and have two sons, Dylan and Laurenson.
On Casting Bronze
In Zen Painting, the Master presents an image created with a vocabulary of calligraphic strokes combined with the random splashes of ink indicating the speed and pressure of the brush stroke. Allowing the juxtaposition of rigid classical technique with spontaneous flow and fluid accidents, the artist offers a union between process and personal expression.
Isn’t it through the dialectic of opposites that we perceive life most fully? The interaction between surface simplicity and inner complexity, between classical tradition and anarchistic rebellion, between control and chaos, between the dusty wall of history and the fresh outburst of the present, between “civilized” modern behavior and daily evidence of a beating heart of darkness.
Why not enhance the perception of these antagonistic yet complementary opposites? Let us feel the edges of what it is to be alive. Try to introduce that which gives life meaning, spontaneity and personal expression.
For me, the exploration of how we perceive life can be narrated in bronze. The roar of the blast furnace still rings in the ears, as the glowing red metal pours into fragile investment molds. The heavy liquid seeks its preordained shape while fluid dynamics; particle physics and accident introduce spontaneous change. All is frozen into a permanent resonant voice.
Bronze casts its ancient spell and gets in your blood.
