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Relief Artist, Sculptor, Painter
Artist Bio
Artists whose work has been a source of interest and inspiration for me over the years include: Sculptor John Rogers (1829-1904), Painter E.L. Henry (1841-1919), Painter Edward Hopper (1882-1967), my father's father, Painter Berger Pearson (1885-1966), Painter Leslie Lerner (1953-2005), and Painter Bill Foge (1935- ).
In the early 1960's my father was working as a newspaper reporter for the "Boston Traveler"; he used to write a North Shore human interest feature column. Occassionally, he would bring my younger brother, Nils, and I on the job, along with his steno pad. Writing an article about a Swampscott, MA fireman, and Pearl Harbor veteran, Al Lalime, featuring his basement-sized model railroad, sparked my father's interest in model railroading as a hobby. After that article, Nils and I had several opportunites to experience Al Lalime's HO model railroad, and my father became a lifetime member of the NMRA. He's still an active HO model railroader today. For me, model railroading was a grounding focus that presented opportunities to learn some things about history, railroads, scale model making, verisimilitude, texture, painting, casting, electricity, soldering, electronics, carpentry, project planning, ... -It's a great, fun family hobby.
My mother's father, Allan Sterner (1903-1976), was a meticulous Swede; he rose to be supervisor of patent drafting in the "Shoe's" Research Division, at the United Shoe Machinery Corp. (USM), in Beverly, MA. From an early age he taught me how to go about understanding materials, and how to make many useful things from scratch. Around age twelve he started letting me use the machinery he had built, particularly the engine lathe he had cleverly built using rocker arm hangers from an old automobile. We also melted lead, casting fishing sinkers in an old metal spoon. He showed me the way he had made them as a boy, using a steel wire to poke a hole in the lead just after it gels . We had some great times fishing on the Essex River, too. We talked about everything from fish to the characteristics of the secondary clay on the river bank -how to use it for mold making and casting. And, combined with a fascination for the finely detailed castings readily available in model railroading kits and parts, I became interested and connected to the process of casting for decades to come.
My interest in model railroading took a back seat by 1970. By then I was a teenager, and I had begun to think of myself primarily as an artist, and not specifically a railroad-subject artist. Nils became very active in school sports, and I spent much of my time making paintings -oil, acrylic, or latex on any fabric I could find. I stretched fabric over frames I made from scrap wood. My father's father, Berger Pearson, had made paintings this way; he used tubes of artist oil pigments. I used his brushes and his remaining artist oils, before resorting to cans of old house paint and occassional tubes of artist acrylic pigments. I was concerned with quantity; I wanted simply to make many paintings. I was painting in quantity because I was exploring -the more I painted, the deeper the exploration.
During the late 1970's through the mid 1990's I enlisted for one 'hitch' in the US Navy as a Hospital Corpsman. Then, I married, graduated from two colleges, raised four children, remarried, worked in several different industries, and squeezed in time to explore artistic uses of a wide range of materials... I scratchbuilt an oil-fired 16 pound crucible foundry to cast aluminum. I scratchbuilt a spincaster and a vulcanizer to cast pewter and zamac. I scratchbuilt a tabletop piston-type injection molder to explore plastic kit model manufacturing. I scratchbuilt a propane-fired compression molder to further explore thermoplastic kit model manufacturing. I gravity casted in pewter, polyester, epoxy, rigid urethanes, plaster, and cement. I wrote a short-run book on casting and mold making, and I started a business casting decorative railroad-theme light switch cover plates in polyester, dba Wayne's Realistic Products.
By 1993 my first wife had become solely focused on owning lots and lots of pets, and in 1996 she left for a man with a similar interest. The stress of fluctuating living circumstances during those years compromised the business, but I had grown in my art through the business, combining sculpture and painting in a satisfying process. I had participated in a few local art shows, in Vermont and Maine, including a solo show from December 2, 1991 through January 3, 1992 at Copley Gallery in Morrissville, VT, and the annual Helen Day Art Center Show in Stowe, VT, showing and selling my 2D work dating as far back as 1978.
In 1997 I married my new wife, Diane. Diane and I were coworkers, employed by a medical lab as phlebotomists; we're both interested in processes. I 've had more time and freedom to explore during these past few years. I built a 3 axis CNC router to mill MDF and plastics, to make signage, rigid molds, and to explore the idea of milling basswood model kits. Diane named this machine "Matilda". I no longer use Matilda, because I've found I strongly prefer the freedom of the process of additive sculpting, rather than the stiff, subtractive sculpting process available through CNC milling or through manual block carving. I prefer the freedom to combine the characteristics of a variety of materials within one sculpture.
As I describe in my mission statement, I like to sculpt and paint. I find endless satisfaction in creating craft and art. Speaking from my own experience, I find that people who creatively construct things are happier than most, even if they're only making things as a sideline or a hobby. To anyone reading my bio, I hope you have some time in your day for some form of creative construction.
Copyright © 2007 Wayne Pearson. All rights reserved.