Mark Galen Lucas creates works
of art that are simultaneously delicate and complex. His sculptures are intended to create an aesthetic that
impacts feelings while encouraging contemplation.
Mr. Lucas is a self-taught
artist who has always been interested in science, especially microbiology and
anatomy. A display that he saw at the American Museum of Natural History in New
York some years ago continues to inspire his work. That display, featuring large glass recreations of organisms,
propelled him to further explore different life forms in his own glass works.
Mr. Lucas is a
lamp-worked glass artist, one who uses a table-mounted torch to melt and fuse
glass to create his visions. About
this process he comments, “I often find myself day dreaming while working the
glass rods with the torch. I am fascinated with the effects that heat, gravity
and centrifugal forces have on the glass rods.”
While forming sculptures,
Mr. Lucas is continually thinking, even dreaming, of life and evolution and
what the world will be like in the future. He considers the many ways that man
is impacting nature now and questions the prudence of some of those
actions. He also references branching and
repeating patterns in nature. “These patterns,” he notes, “are always
floating around in my head, changing and evolving, while I work.” And while he works, he contemplates where life is headed and
the effects of evolution.
“Dreams of the Carbon
Base: Contemporary Sculpture in Glass and More”
Opens January 2 with an
Art Walk reception from 5-8pm.
Show runs Jan.2-March
2. Daily from 10 am to 6 pm.
Jerome Artists’
Cooperative Gallery
502 Main St. Jerome
