98 center street
Douglas michigan
Pieces available for purchase.
“Speed is such a huge part of the environment we live in,” said Newman, who himself doesn’t own a cell phone. “But the greater reality is the speed of change. The figures I make are reflecting that.”
These symbols of perpetual motion developed from Newman’s own experience in the business world working for a lighter company in the late 1970s. His brief time there was enough for him to learn that industry was not what he wanted to do for a living. But working with the heads of companies also gave him fodder for future artistic projects. “The c.e.o. is a person who cannot show a lot of emotion but gets news that can be good or terrible,” Newman said. “He can’t jump up and down. But his nerve endings go all over. He’s affected totally. That’s the thing I want to express in an image.”
He begins that process by sketching an image that he intends to turn into a 3-D piece of art. He then traces it onto a sheet of wax measuring 2 or 3 feet square and 1/8 inch thick. Next, he cuts the figure out and attaches it to an armature. With a hot iron, he shapes the wax to imply the hectic movement he desires.
Newman wants his sculptures to be slim. His goal is to suggest an angular, exaggerated shadow. A shadow, he said, can stretch in different directions–similar to how we are stretched so thin today in our busy lives.
