Transcending the Everyday

Our city's arts commission installed an exhibit of statues downtown that have evoked a lot of stares and conversation. The artist is known for his life-size bronze castings of ordinary, every day people. His castings replicate the textures of the objects and are subsequently painted to look life-like. No, make that beyond life-like, almost surreal. The word that comes to a lot of viewer's minds is creepy.

I must admit that they are a bit eerie. I expect them to take on life and move, sort of like an episode of The Twilight Zone. Take this old lady, for example.


This woman looks like she just walked out of the store. The detail is amazing as noted in her hand ~


Remember, she is a painted bronze statue. Look at the veins, wrinkles and skin tone. Whether you think this is art, the artist is certainly a technical genius. I would call this hyper realism ~ and his work causes me to really look at "someone" that I might not even notice if she was a real woman walking down the street.

And that's the beauty of art. It causes us to see, converse and emote in ways that transcend the everydayness of life (my own made-up word) and to look afresh at our surroundings.