African sculpture, Japanese aesthetics, Mexican folk
\narts, nature, personal experience and relationships, family, music,
\nChristian art (both Gothic and Medieval) and other artist’s creations,
\nare some major influences I draw from. I do not like to create images
\nthat read as only one thing, but try to create works that have both
\npower and mystery.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The tension that runs through the cast lead and bronze sculptures at Greg Kucera Gallery<\/a> appears to come from a source close to hand who is not specifically on his list: the slippery, dark-moon-and-muck sensibility of Morris Graves. <\/p>\n (Graves, Waning Moon<\/i>, #3, 1943, Seattle Art Museum, via<\/a>)<\/p>\n Like Graves, (Calderon, Trophy<\/i>, cast bronze, 2008)<\/p>\n (Calderon, Globo<\/i>, lead on Styrofoam and modified cement, 2009, 85″x33″x33″)<\/p>\n Everything Mark Calderon makes, no matter how odd, has a languid beauty. Although drawn to Christian symbols of sacrifice, in his hands the final product is gorgeous. He puts a top hat on his influences, which he describes as: African sculpture, Japanese aesthetics, Mexican folk arts, nature, personal experience and relationships, family, music, Christian art […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"morrisgravessnakes.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/morrisgravessnakes.jpg\")
<\/span>(Calderon Untitled, skink twins<\/i>, 2009, cast lead)<\/p>\n![\"markcalderonsalaman.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/markcalderonsalaman.jpg\")
<\/span><\/p>\n
\nGraves, Snake and Moon<\/i>, 1938-39, via<\/a><\/p>\n![\"morrisgravessnake.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/morrisgravessnake.jpg\")
<\/span>Calderon, Untitled, (snake 2)<\/i>, 2009, cast lead<\/p>\n![\"markcaldersnake2.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/markcaldersnake2.jpg\")
<\/span>Graves
\nappreciated river rats, artists who lived on rotting boats moored in
\nthe Skagit Valley, although everywhere he lived was lovely. There might
\nin moss in the garden but never mold in his closet.<\/p>\n
\nCalderon makes light work of heavy subjects. The suffering face imprinted in sweat on
\nVeronica’s Veil <\/i><\/a>is gone. All that’s left is the hair, ropey black and
\nalive.<\/p>\n![\"markcalderonhair.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/assets_c\/2009\/08\/markcalderonhair-thumb-300x465-9529.jpg\")
<\/a><\/span>In
\nlarger sculptures, such as Globo<\/i> in the current show, Calderon
\npositions himself somewhere between Jun Kaneko<\/a>, Peter Millett<\/a> and Peter
\nShelton<\/a>, all West Coast masters of fluid sculptural line, yet for Calderon, the
\naction is on the surface, as if he intended a kind of eroded Braille
\nthat had lost its literal meaning through weathering.<\/p>\n![\"markcalderongobo.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/markcalderongobo.jpg\")
<\/span>Through Sept. 26. Reception, Sept. 3, 6-8 p.m. Artist talk in the gallery, Sept. 5, noon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"