Humor, wordplay brought to life with scrap metal sculptures
Posted by Amber Kapiloff
FARMINGTON - For Jay “JBone” Sawyer, becoming an artist is a recent change in lifestyle.
“I think it’s something that has always been there for me but I didn’t realize it until now,” Sawyer said. “Mentors of mine started pointing it out and making me aware of it and I’ve been chasing it for ten years now.”
The sculptor, who works with scrap metal salvaged from all over Maine, creates “raw art”- bringing stories and life back to material that has been forgotten or tossed aside. The wide array of reclaimed objects that Sawyer finds pushes his work to “do big,” both physically and thoughtfully.
As a teenager growing up in Warren, Sawyer spent many days hanging out at the old water-powered mill with friends. Sawyer describes it as a place where “lots of things happened”- a spot to remember as the years have ticked by. Metal from the abandoned mill was what initially inspired Sawyer to create the exhibit currently being hosted by the Emery Community Arts Center at the University of Maine at Farmington.
The exhibit- “Sculpture Soup” - is a collection of letters from the alphabet, all with a hidden message. The first letter Sawyer created, using scrap metal from the old mill, was a lowercase ‘e’ titled “Iron e”. Six months later at the encouragement from friends, Sawyer completed the rest of the vowels and began the challenge of accomplishing the entire alphabet.
“It’s an honor to have my art here at UMF,” Sawyer says at the installation of his two extra large sculptures- the “F Bomb” and “Wandering I”. “There’s a lot of educational opportunity in the exhibit. It can be a real instructional vehicle for exploring the weird and quirky things about the English language.” Sawyer explains.
“We all really love having him here,” Stan Spilecki, Technical Director at UMF says. “He has a great sense of humor and the whole exhibit has a little edge to it that works really well. There’s so much more to it than just a bunch of jokes.”
The exhibit debuts on Aug. 29 with a reception on Sept. 9 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.