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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us September 29, 2005 Sculptor follows his ‘blind sense’ By Cindy Blankenship For the Tidings Artist Sketch Name : Jack Langford Hails From : Maine; Ashland since 1997. Age : 48 Training : Self-taught. Claim to Fame : 25 years in the profession. Niche : Stone and bronze sculpture. Inspiration: “The unity of God.” The portfolio opened to his marble figurative sculptures, the beautiful proportions, symmetry and curves that engage mind and spirit, Jack Langford picks up his nearly empty, paper coffee cup at Evo’s to exemplify his artistic process. “Half of sculpting is visual and half is what I call ‘a blind sense.’ This blind sense is what it (the subject) feels like...The extent to which I know what it feels like, in a kinetic and emotional sense, determines the successfulness of the work,” says Langford, gently swirling the tablespoon or so of coffee in the bottom of the cup. “How would it feel to be this paper cup?” he says, lifting his arms up and outward, portraying the cup and describing the fear of the impending crumpling and tossing into a waste bin. “Or, you might be joyful that you have completed your purpose,” he adds. In this case, both feelings would go into the sculpture; other times, it’s one. “The stone’s hardness is proportionate to the clarity of the artist’s intention,” he says. In his artist’s statement Langford says he looks for the “interface between the ethereal and the material, trying to imbue matter with spirit.” Langford built a foundry and studio on East Hills Drive (“the first large barn on the right,” his business card reads) where he creates his larger works, such as the life-size buffalo sculpture for a New Mexico client, the towering bronze fan dancer for a theater at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay casino, and “Pioneers in New England” for a park in Kennebunkport, Maine. He also casts original bronze statues and has just received his largest block of marble ever, which awaits his chisel. After carving out a living with sculpture for most of his adult life, and he now feels he has reached the level of skill that he requires of himself for such a large work. To avoid mistakes, which in marble are literally set in stone, he often sculpts in clay first. While for eight years he did not allow himself to use any power tools in his sculpture, today he uses them occasionally; however, most of his work is still created freehand, using chisels, rasps, files and such. Most of Langford’s figurative sculptures are shipped to Maine, while functional art such as a sculpted rose gate or exquisite casing for a bathtub is in higher demand in Ashland. He also enjoyed working as an ornament specialist in Haifa, Israel, at the Baha’i World Center from ‘83 to ‘85 and from ‘88 to ‘92. His work has appeared at various galleries in Ashland, most recently at Ashland Art Works during a First Friday Art Walk last year. Born in Maine, Langford was raised in Medford. He chose art as a profession when he was 19 because art is what occupied all of his free time (other than skiing Mount Ashland). Soon afterward, he experienced a vision that led him to create geometrical drawings and kinetic art: a geometrical sphere, moving very fast over his own head, “yet so perfectly balanced in its motion that the surface appeared still.” He became acquainted with stone sculpture while working in the kinetic sculpture studio at college. Since then, he has been drawn to sculpting the human form — in clay, stone and bronze, more and more in stone. “I’m not the type to go sit cross-legged to find the answers. I need to understand things from a perceptual level,” Langford says, explaining that 95 percent of his art is about finding the meaning of that long-ago vision. Asked what he loves most about his work, he says he enjoys the personal interaction in teaching sculpture. “I try to see what a person is interested in seeing in the art and then teaching them the techniques needed to create this,” he says. This is a different approach than he recalls encountering in college, and even though he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and has completed some postgraduate studies, he taught himself sculpture and says that since college he has never lacked for inspiration. His sculptures can be viewed at www.langfordsculpturestudio.com DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Generic Viagra Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Absinthe Supply Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Hammocks Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino King of Spirits ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. 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