Thursday Night-Dan Webb

Dan Webb's work was truly fascinating.  One of my most favorite pieces in the show was "Fortress" (2009).  The entire piece is made out of a tree trunk and is made out of carved cedar.  As far as the intention or purpose behind the piece, Fragile Fortress provides a survey of fifteen years of intense exploration and self-invention.  In his figurative work, the sculpture artist explores many themes, in this case, the fragility of life and human resilience.  The carvings made play against the rougher surfaces, uncovering a tension between what was, what is and what could be.  He also discussed how he was, often, given information or some sort of a conceptual reference and wanted to produce something that only suggested the narrative.  He usually sands the top and bottom area of a sculpture to get good shadows and highlights, so he's also thinking about not only his sculpture as one piece, but how to adjust his sculpture, so that it plays with the lighting in the gallery space.  He is also thinking about how he can incorporate the gallery space into his piece as a whole.

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