M.L. SNOWDEN ART
Ascension of Elements
“Snowden’s bronze lifts to new metallurgical thresholds”
Snowden redefines earth’s classic elements of water, fire, air, and earth in a suite of four elevations that transform through human interaction. The suite shapes an intimate reflection on the basic elements of Snowden’s sculptural art.
Alluvia
Alluvia magically floats on an imaginary pool of water. Alluvia’s elongated and suspended form dedicated to water, rises on the sculptor’s initial exertion to define earth’s classic elements. Alluvia takes its name from the alluvial flood plains of the great rivers that have nurtured civilizations. From the River Seine to the Tiber, from the Thames to the Nile and beyond, the pooling and flowing waters of deltas, sea beds, and rivers run along abstract rivulet patterns that support the sculptural structure. As bronze, Alluvia speaks to a humanitarian spiritual core that floats in mystery in the midst of earthly elements that create physical incarnation. For Snowden, Alluvia is one of four paeans dedicated to the art of sculpture, as water is an essential component of clay and bronze.
Caldera
Caldera is a geological nexus of fire; a vortex where a volcanic core has become molten and cooled into submersion. Yet the sculptor has gone beyond any geologic association to form the essence of fire when it first ignites as a swirling energy pattern. As a result of Snowden’s continued experimentation in bronze extrusion, Caldera’s weight effortlessly suspends on a thin bronze line that traces an almost immaterial filigree. Caldera is one of the symbols of Snowden’s sculptural art, since fire is an integral part of bronze casting.
Aeolia
Aeolia breathes air as an octave of artistic inspiration. Through a fluent ability to meld, blend, and coax the forces of bronze, Snowden is able to achieve a sense of undulating atmosphere. The historic Fournier patina glazes the undertones of the work into sun-touched mist and wind patterns born of high heats that capture the airy smoke and marbling of clouds. In this work, flowing scarves transmute into metal and in turn, form a path into the method of the sculptor. Indeed, to touch Aeolia is to touch the sculptor’s formational handprints upon clay that were subsequently cast into bronze. Snowden sculpts Aeolia as sculpture’s third classic element, not only elevating the bronze as an evocation of inspiration, but as an embodiment of atmospheric air that aerates and oxidizes the essential materials of sculpture.
Terra
Rough shale piles into Terra’s earthen form. Skeins of lava, condensed rock, and substrates of clay, rise and connect into Terra creating elevation. Indeed, the work ultimately suggests the lifting and transformative energies of life and spirit upon matter, where for all its substantial weight of almost two hundred pounds, Terra’s central figure rises from its organic couch to magnify and materialize the sculptor’s vision. Terra embraces one of the four classic elements of Snowden’s sculptural art, naturally rising as an embodiment of clay and bronze.