LIFE BEYOND FIRST CLASS
ARTS & COLLECTIBLES
RAYMOND J. STEINER
ON ARTIST FAY WOOD
“Fay Wood, a unique artist who decidedly marches to her own drum!”
This soft-spoken woman is a deceptively unlikely source of such intense, spiritual, far-sighted, inventive, startling, and ingenious body of work that manages to combine both gravitas and whimsey.
Fay Wood is the quintessential 3-dimentional artist, imagining tangible form from inchoate matter. Though in her early days a sculptor of wood, she has since allowed her art to encompass a new world of objects, many ‘found’, each discrete bit or piece subtly transformed into something ‘other’.
“FAMILY”
Hand carved Cherry wood
17” x 7” x 9”
“MOTHER & CHILD”
Hand carved Cherry wood, laminated wood base 17” x 10” x 10”
“FLIGHT INTO EGYPT”
Hand carved willow wood
26” x 21” x 9”
To take some found metal objects, a bunch of wire and a few dabs of paint and translate them into prize-winning sculptures takes not only manual dexterity, but an aesthetic vision. In her hands, like clay made into man, new objects can turn magically into ‘beings’.
“MUSE” Found Object Assemblage 52” x 12” diameter
INTERVIEW with Fay Wood
The most overwhelming experience in both my personal and professional life was the day — September 25, 1985 — when I watched our home and 90% of my studio and finished work get blown across the city of New Haven CT, by hurricane Gloria. A total loss of years of work.
This painting was created where an overhead water pipe burst and closed the building down. There are two faucets because the original painting was damaged by Hurricane Gloria and this seemed the best way to save the work and comment on the forces of nature.
Would I ever do my work again? Could I ever pick up the pieces? Could I face the prospect of starting all over from scratch?
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“BIRMINGHAM STUDIO”
oil on linen canvas 48” x 48”
A daunting idea by any measure, but I knew that I loved the work and I would not, could not stop. It took 6 years for us to pick up the pieces and to establish a new home and studio in Saugerties NY, where we created Clove Church Studio. Here I was able to look to the future and, in this large exciting space, begin to create some of the most interesting (and challenging) work I have ever done.
CLOVE CHURCH STUDIO
“DRAGONFLY”
found object assemblage; wood, metal
40” length, 44” wingspan
“JOSEPH’S COAT” oil on linen canvas 34.5” x 39”
(the 1st of ‘Tapestries of My Mind’ series)
Joseph’s Coat of my Tapestry of My Mind series.
Having made art for over sixty years, first as a painter, then beginning in 1970, sculpting in wood, Fay Wood now manages six distinct portfolios:
• Painting on Canvas
• Reverse Oil Painting on Glass
• Drawing
• Tapestry
• Collage
• Sculpture using Found Objects
Wood uses a variety of materials in her work, from found metal, wire, paper, paint, found wood, found vintage materials, theater lighting gels, and whatever meets her discerning eye.
“AFTERTASTE” metal, found objects, rag paper, paint, beeswax16” x 39” x 16”
“GREENPIECE” antique frame,
found metal & fiber objects 38” x 42” x 8”
I was in the family attic where I was fortunate enough to come upon this pair of beautiful deep Walnut Victorian frames with glass to work with.
“WEB I” Antique frame, found objects, reverse oil painting on vintage glass, wire, beeswax 18” x 16” x 4”
“WEB II” Antique frame, found objects, reverse oil painting on vintage glass, wire, beeswax 17.5” diameter x 4”
WEB I and WEB II are a combination of techniques: reverse oil painting on vintage glass overlaid with an abstract web of wire and found objects.
“Arrange whatever pieces come your way.”
Virginia Woolf
I am much more interested in formal techniques, the use of space, color, texture, and balance. I want to create a work that communicates warmth, humor, sometimes joy and mystery, and perhaps emotions that the audience can’t really explain to themselves, but will remain in their minds. With a sense of design and humor, I try to help people to see objects combined in configurations that create new meanings.
It’s interesting to see the various reactions to my work. I’ve seen people change their ideas completely when they look at a certain piece then fall in love with what the work says to them.
This is the way I’ve worked all my life — keeping at least three works in my mind and in varying stages of completion at all times. I’ve learned through long experience about the value of adaptability and flexibility. Dream? Yes, always, but I feel in my 83rd year remarkably lucky to have accomplished the body of work I’ve managed up to now. We will see what the future holds.
Fay Wood has embraced this philosophy to create her inventive & imaginative two and three dimensional art. View her website or join her in her studio. You will not regret adding Wood’s art to YOUR collection.
FAY WOOD:
• Recipient of The National Sculpture Society’s Proskauer Prize for Non Traditional Sculpture;
• Invited to exhibit at the Florence Biennale, Florence, Italy;
• Rhine-Hudson Bridge collaboration in Cologne, Germany, W as well as extensive exhibition history in U.S.;
• Work selected to show at the “Time, Space, Existence Exhibition” on-line at the 2018 Architectural Biennale in Venice, Italy;
• Featured in PBS/Burt Wolf production in 2019;
• Recently elected to Who’s Who in America;
• Recently featured in extensive interview published in Private Air Magazine and Art Market magazine.