Kindred Spirits
Chas Martin
Sculpture- Mixed Media
18 x 9 x 6 in
I use gestures to amplify primal qualities, emotions, and shared experiences. My abstracted figures are multicolored, genderless, politically and religiously neutral archetypal personalities. These simple, dynamic forms are nuanced storytellers.” Chas Martin
Man Turning Into Sky
Chas Martin
Sculpture-Mixed Media
11x 15.5 x 11 in
Transformation on many levels- form to etheral, human bird figure to bird, real to imaginary. This piece was a challenge. Balance is the core of the form. I started with the rock and worked my way through the body to the clouds. It didn’t balance until I completed the legs. As with many of my pieces, transformation is an elemental theme. We are not static beings. As you cannot step into the same river twice, you cannot be the same person tomorrow.” –CM
My work has always been concept-driven. I’m currently exploring archetypal characters in symbolic situations, and I explore them through sketches, clay, photos, watercolor, acrylic, collage, and sculpture. Interaction on so many levels transforms my visualization into realization.” –CM
Walks Lightly
Chas Martin
Mixed Media
22 x 8 x 8
Dozens of sketches precede each sculpture. As a voice emerges, I move to 3D. Then, as a director guides an actor, I shape and reshape the armature until it expresses the character’s unique role.
Each scene ends with an unanswered question in theater or film, creating suspense that engages viewers and advances the story. I use negative space to create questions. As viewers move around the form, a relationship evolves. The interaction of inquiry and discovery reveals the archetype to the observer.
Viewing my work is a layered experience. The first reaction is often whimsical or humorous, and the second level reveals a more engaging question. The third level reflects the viewer’s journey, and everyone sees something different. –CM
Chas Martin is a full-time sculptor and painter. Educated as a visual communicator, he worked for several decades as a creative director for ad agencies in Boston and San Francisco. His experiences in film, exhibit design, and experience design all influence his current sculptural work. He serves as president of Pacific Northwest Sculptors, an educational nonprofit.
Awakened
Chas Martin
Sculpture-Mixed Media
16 x 6 x 7 in
Mind Meld
Chas Martin
Sculpture- Mixed Media
18.5.x 7x 5.5 in
Aware
Chas Martin
Sculpture-Mixed Media
29.5 x 14 x 6 in
Chas Martin’s career spans 45 years of visual communication. After his studies at Pratt Institute in New York and 10 years as an art director/creative for Boston and San Francisco ad agencies, he now pursues painting and sculpture full time in the Pacific Northwest.
Chas has served as an instructor at Boston Art Institute, San Francisco Academy of Art College, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Northwest Academy, and Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. He is an avid backpacker, reader, and foodie. Chas Martin lives in Oregon; however, his imagination is not geographically anchored.
Chas Martin offered a sculpture demo recently for the Oregon Society of Artists.
Where do his ideas come from? Here’s one answer:
In Tubac, AZ, “Leap” won the Award of Excellence!
The show is a collaboration between Tubac Center of the Arts and Bruce Baughman Studio & Gallery.
“Leap” is mixed media, a translucent body – 16.75 x 8.5 x 7 in.
The act of springing free from the past, from the comfortable, as if from the tangible into the unknown.
It’s the act of passing from one state to another. Leaping into a new reality. It is a constant act of courage to create anything new. That is the risk creative people take every day.
I just finished a commission for masks for Dell’Arte International, a theater company. This is an award that has been given annually since 1989. One mask goes to Zimbabwe, one to an affiliate company in Denmark, and the third will remain in California. I’ll keep the 4th in my own collection. This has been a fun project and an honor to have been selected to create the award this year. Chas
“Missing Person” has been juried into Around Oregon Annual 2022. Reception is Thursday July 21 from 5:30 – 7:30 at 700 SW Madison Ave., Corvallis, OR.
It was a pleasure to meet and talk with you today.
Let me know if I can provide anything else.
I look forward to hearing reactions from your clients.
Chas Martin
Please read more about our Seaside gallery, our commitment to N.W. artists, and products made by N.W. hands.
https://fairweatherhouseandgallery.com
This week, I’ve had 3 sculptures and 2 masks juried into the “Negative Space,” a virtual show at Manifold Global Gallery, Lehigh, PA.
I also had 3 sculptures juried into “Proud to be Seen,” a live and virtual show at Bruce Baughman Gallery, Tubac, AZ. –Chas
