Haughton, Louisiana, artist Robert Fogel will show his work in the Merkle and Price Galleries September 2-28 with an artist reception Saturday, September 16, 6-8pm. Fogel is a metal artist who creates evocative modern metal sculptures. Selected pieces of Fogel’s work have shown in the SAAC galleries for Juried Art Competitions.

Artist’s Statement

A beautiful line strikes a chord within me as do the contrast of colors and the harmonious arrangement of forms within an image. The power of a line and form in my sculptures is enhanced by stripping away superfluous detail. I grew up in western Oregon in a soft landscape dominated by dense vegetation. The sparse vegetation and resulting landscapes in the Great Basin marks a sharp contrast to western Oregon landscapes. The beauty of these stark landscapes drives me to make sculptures that strip a mental image to its essence, emphasizing line and form. Color is used to contrast features. The result for me often evokes memories of landscapes and geological features that I experienced during the thirty years I spent working in the deserts and mountains of the West.

I started the meander series of sculptures after discovering the similarity between lines created by rivers in the Southwest and Louisiana in aerial photographs. High altitude satellite images, like sparse vegetation, emphasize features by reducing detail, revealing beautiful lines made by river meanders.

The vug* series and pegmatite series reflect my interest in geology. Vug was coined by Cornish miners for crystal filled cavities in parent rock. Pegmatite describes veins of intrusive igneous rock composed of large crystals.
Metal is used as my medium because it allows for more physical relief than paint on canvas. This difference in height creates ever-changing shadows that enhance the definition of lines and the shape of forms. Metal also corrodes providing natural colors. Red sandstones, for instance, can be evoked by artificially creating rust patinas. The red sandstones common in Southwest deserts owe their color to rust.

*vug – The word “vug” was introduced by Cornish miners for cavities inside rock filled by quartz, calcite, and other secondary minerals.