I grew up in Texas and did my bachelors in art at the University of Texas. I painted a lot in the fields outside of Austin while a student. The time out there in the landscape was a lasting experience in my life. I learned the figure there as well.
After that I spent one year at the Cleveland Art Institute before leaving for Yale University for my masters in sculpture.
Marriage took me to Finland, my wife's home country, which turned out to be a rare kind of paradise, painting out in the snowy fields and forests. I returned and began teaching sculpture and drawing at Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner. I taught for 34 years - a most significant part of my life.
During those years I worked on several commissions in Boston and Cambridge. The figure played an important part at that time. Afterward I sought to move beyond the figure. Looking back, this could be compared to someone who learned to play the violin in his youth until it occurs to him that other instruments are pulling him on and that he needed to explore them. Of course, it doesn't mean that later on he might not pick up the violin again and momentarily be amazed at the sound of it - just for a moment!
The pieces shown in the A.P.E. Gallery exhibit were made between 1995 and 2014. They are the result of letting my work evolve - the next step was rarely a problem. It was usually right in front of me. The niches began at about the same time the first cast bronze pieces were started.
The title of the exhibit somehow seemed appropriate - "Circus Stories." A circus, at least for me, is a memory of an assortment of unbelievable clowns, animals, acrobats, etc. It was way out, yet my imagination and the stage where it played out shifts to contain things grown larger in time, like a parade of things which do not necessarily belong together, but here they come and they seem to fit together as well as any line of seated elephants!
Most importantly, I feel the pieces in this exhibit represent evolution. This was the theme that let them come into being.
I would like to give Gordon Thorne special thanks for his support and belief in this show.
- Gene Cauthen 2015
After that I spent one year at the Cleveland Art Institute before leaving for Yale University for my masters in sculpture.
Marriage took me to Finland, my wife's home country, which turned out to be a rare kind of paradise, painting out in the snowy fields and forests. I returned and began teaching sculpture and drawing at Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner. I taught for 34 years - a most significant part of my life.
During those years I worked on several commissions in Boston and Cambridge. The figure played an important part at that time. Afterward I sought to move beyond the figure. Looking back, this could be compared to someone who learned to play the violin in his youth until it occurs to him that other instruments are pulling him on and that he needed to explore them. Of course, it doesn't mean that later on he might not pick up the violin again and momentarily be amazed at the sound of it - just for a moment!
The pieces shown in the A.P.E. Gallery exhibit were made between 1995 and 2014. They are the result of letting my work evolve - the next step was rarely a problem. It was usually right in front of me. The niches began at about the same time the first cast bronze pieces were started.
The title of the exhibit somehow seemed appropriate - "Circus Stories." A circus, at least for me, is a memory of an assortment of unbelievable clowns, animals, acrobats, etc. It was way out, yet my imagination and the stage where it played out shifts to contain things grown larger in time, like a parade of things which do not necessarily belong together, but here they come and they seem to fit together as well as any line of seated elephants!
Most importantly, I feel the pieces in this exhibit represent evolution. This was the theme that let them come into being.
I would like to give Gordon Thorne special thanks for his support and belief in this show.
- Gene Cauthen 2015