Michael Ferris
Friday, 2 October 2009
Portraiture is beginning to really fascinate me. For me, capturing the essence is of utmost importance. I have come across many pieces that attempt to convey emotion to varying degrees of success. I truly believe the key is in the eyes. Eyes are our so-called windows to the soul. Without fully leveraging the potential of the eyes to portray emotion, portraits usually turn out somewhat flat. However, if used wisely, the piece comes alive. You feel like you are meeting them in real life. And that is how I felt when I came across Michael Ferris’ work.
“I am interested in the human figure mainly because the possibilities are endless… I start a sculpture by building the basic form and then I grind down, shape and chisel the piece until an accurate state of the form is reached. I then apply the inlaid wood and pigmented grout, sand and shape until the final form is attained. The process becomes very interesting to me near the end as I work to find the correct balance between the form, the patterned surface and the presence of the person I am sculpting.”
“My dad was Lebanese. Back in the 1960’s during a trip to the Middle East he purchased two very fine inlaid backgammon tables that were made in Damascus Syria. I grew up with these tables in my home and I would look at them quite often. They amazed me. When I started making sculpture in 1992 the idea of incorporating inlaid wood into my work seemed very natural to me. At first I didn’t make the connection that I had been deeply inspired by these gaming tables in my childhood home. I really didn’t know why I was making the work I was making back then. It just felt right. It wasn’t until years later when I walked by those tables in my parents house that I realized where the inlaid component of my work came from. It’s strange that it didn’t dawn on me until that moment but I think those tables were such a deep part of my experience growing up that I never really directly thought about them. They were just in me.”
Text and images kindly permitted to be republished on this blog by the artist himself. Please go to Michael Ferris’ site to view more of his work.