David Varnau

artist statement

For me, the genesis of each new sculpture is my desire to capture the wonder and appreciation that I feel when I witness anew the beauty of the human form.  What inspires me often is a pose that conveys a mood that I find compelling, that, while expressing some common human experience, is visually evocative.

The process of actually sculpting is nearly mystical for me.  I simply revel in the transference of the visual details to my hands as they model the clay.  I find myself drop into a zone that is both generative and profound. Further, there is a communion that develops between me and the model as I discover visually the contours of her body or the lines of his motion.  I know that I am in the groove when I become excited about the pose. When viewing the completed clay original, I must feel stirred by the mood that the sculpture conveys. I have a confidence of it being complete when the sensuality and dynamism of the piece is compelling.  It is only then that I commit to casting the sculpture in bronze.

My art is informed by a rewarding career of serving amputees in the field of prosthetics for over 40 years, which provided me with an appreciation for the human spirit’s capacity to transform loss into triumph.  Those patient interactions endowed me with an eye for the wonders of the human body, but also a heart to sense the essence of the person before me, which stimulated my yearning to express those insights in sculpture. My academic training in prosthetics included an in-depth study in anatomy and human motion, which was the foundation on which I built my figurative art studies at Gage Academy in Seattle.

In my sculptures, what both intrigues and excites me is to successfully create an image that, at first glance, grabs the viewer’s attention.  Figurative sculpture is something that nearly everyone can relate to.  With 3-D art, it is particularly satisfying for me to succeed in capturing your interest from all sides of the piece!  My mission is this: