Chas Martin: Sculpture - Masks - Paintings

Art is a path of discovery.
Artwork is a record of a mindful journey.

Statement

My work presents unanswered questions that invite viewer interpretation beyond their personal experiences and connotations. My goal is to create a sense of awe – a larger and more mysterious awareness that transcends our current understanding of the world. Awe allows us to get outside of ourselves, revealing and connecting us to the larger community, to nature, to ideas and to cultural experiences.

I want to transform individual experience into universal experience. My sculptures symbolize archetypal qualities of characters and situations. They might at first appear whimsical. But the unanswered questions they pose create a pathway to commonality that eliminates the labels and definitions that define and divide us. Regardless of how we see ourselves or each other, at our core, we are part of a single, connected, mutually interdependent community.

I create symbolic figures. These characters are both contemporary and timeless archetypal metaphors. Their gestures tell stories by amplifying human qualities, emotions, or circumstances.

My style was initially inspired by petroglyphs. Indigenous cultures worldwide have etched figures into rock for millennia, not as graffiti, but to invoke the essence or guidance of a specific archetype. Exploration of archetypes inspires many preliminary sketches – sometimes 50 or more. I redraw them until the nuances of the hands, the attitude of the head, and overall gestures accurately convey the story. Their stories are our stories. They celebrate what we have in common rather than the labels and differences that divide us.

Influences

I have been influenced by many great minds for many different reasons. These artists, writers and thinkers have inspired me with their techniques, their imaginations, and their perception of reality.