Gwynn Murrill

"My primary point of departure when beginning a new piece is the memory of a form that caught my attention; it could be a cat walking through the studio, a coyote jumping from the brush, a ballet dancer casually stretching, or the inferred three-dimensional form of the bodies in a Japanese woodblock print. To recreate this imagined form, I begin the sculptural process by reducing blocks of wood or foam to a more recognizable shape. The manifestation of the idea takes on a life of its own which I see through until the end, even if it ends up in a slightly different form from the original imagined one. I am most well known for my animal forms. As I am surrounded in my daily life by the fauna that inhabit the California countryside, it came naturally that I began to use their lines and shapes as the inspiration for my exploration of form. My interest lies in using my chosen subject as a means to create a form that is simultaneously abstract and figurative. I enjoy the challenge of trying and take the form that nature makes so well and to derive my own interpretation of it." - Gwynn Murrill