Artist’s Corner
By
Paul Cahan
I've been a sculptor for 10 years. Using found objects for art started during the turn of the century with the cubists and surrealists; my mentor in the 1980's was an artist who created in this format in Maine where I spent my summers. He made sculpture from old farm implements and material from abandoned shoe factories. He has since passed away, but when I create in this way, I feel that, in part, I am continuing his tradition and his work.
When I'm on the water floating down the river, it is a process very similar to making art. I often begin by laying the pieces together and just gazing at and moving them around in different configurations. Many weeks - sometimes months - pass before a piece is finished. I think about it on and off, work on it on and off... change things around...like the tides. Like paddling, life is a rhythm of time, tides, seasons, recent memory, history, past, resent and future. What is around the next bend? This piece can be seen in many different ways.... a headless "meadowlands" mystery in concert with the meadowlands rough and tumble mythology, .... Or the sound of a saxophone in the midst of the sound of automobiles, trains, and birds. Art is in the eye and hand of the beholder and changes every time you see it, as does the river. |
I began kayaking on the Hackensack River when an outing
group I belong to hosted a river trip a few years ago. I was thrilled that
there was an opportunity to commune with nature on the water so close to where
I live. I became a 'regular' on the river and discovered quickly that there
were surprises to be found. On that first trip, we took a break and landed just
north of the first bridge that the Main Line trains use. There, in the reeds
not too far from the turnpike, was an old manifold from a Ford engine. Being an
artist, I immediately saw great potential and lugged the thing into the kayak,
hoping the Riverkeeper folks wouldn't be upset if I put a little scratch in
their boat. But I had to have it! Over the course of the summer, I've stumbled
on a few other objects and created my first Hackensack River piece.
A little art theory: Using this format gives the viewer an
experience of both time and space. A leap to the past occurs in wondering what
the objects were first used for, and what was the Meadowlands and life in
general like when these materials were used.
Time suddenly becomes cyclical in one's mind, rather than
linear....it becomes easy to take another 'time leap' as I call it and wonder
what life was like with the first people, the Native Americans before these
materials were used. Then one more leap, and one finds oneself wondering what
it was like before any human beings were here at all and what the future of our
planet will be going forward.