Sculptor George Rodriguez works in expression. Physically a long way from his El Paso roots, every piece reflects home in the borderlands even as it leaves behind the constraints of expectation.
The special guest of the Silver City CLAY Festival this year, Rodriguez was born and raised in the border city. Not sure he was going to college, he finally decided to attend the University of Texas in El Paso and thought he would want to do something in arts. Starting in design, he found he didn’t enjoy it much and, after some introductory classes, fell in love with ceramics.
“It’s about the possibilities,” he said. “You start with a lump and transform into anything you can imagine. Sculptural forms drew me. I love the way it felt but there was also – you can make everything.”
He said the ceramics was difficult for him, for a long time he was unable to fully grasp fully the material.
“I did painting at same time,” he said. “I had more control over painting but stuck with ceramics because I wanted to get more control.”
But he persevered to get his bachelor of fine arts degree in ceramics from UTEP, then went on to receive a master of fine arts degree from the University of Washington. That was followed as a recipient of a Bonderman Travel Fellowship which allowed him to travel across the world through most of 2010, an experience which, in his words, “had a profound impact.”
Now he lives in Philadelphia but also has a studio in Washington State, where he loves to work.
Rodriguez’s work tends to be expressive, decorated and sometimes political. The faces on his sculptures speak volumes with the single twist of an eyebrow or quirk in the mouth.
“I think my sculptures are not highly realistic,” he said. “They look like people, but you wouldn’t mistake it for a human if you see that face. They are representations – trying to embody a feeling – and when I get that feeling I kind of stop trying to alter the facial features. It’s like very minute change that alters your emotions and perceptions. And once I find something that I think works, I will stop messing around with it.”
He said for him, color adds a big part to emotive quality. Warm tones or cool tones can change everything.
Many of Rodriguez’s pieces have a deep humor to them. They are serious but sometimes make you smile about how he deals with the subject.
“I am very conscious of doing that,” he said. “For me, it’s like humor is an entry point in a conversation.”
Even if a piece has political or serious messaging, the initial reaction is to see bright color and ornamentation and the viewer will be drawn to it.
“For those who are more invested,” he said, “they can get deeper into the stories. Nobody likes to be preached at, but you can get an entry that way.”
Working with decoration has become a fascination for Rodriguez. He said decoration can be parasitic, not adding anything to the piece but he likes to cover a lot of surface.
“Usually decoration is extra,” he said. ‘The form is there without the decoration. I like to cover a lot of the surface, where it almost becomes so much that you kind of forget it’s there – it’s not like one emblem that really stands out. With my decoration there is so much of it, it sometimes takes over the forms.”
Rodriguez works with joy and that is often reflected in his art. His self-portrait, “George With Flowers,” shares the twinkle in his nature and replaces his hair and beard with colorful flowers. In fact, as you look at many of his faces, you can see the George in them along with the other themes.
In fact, he starts pieces, no matter how they end up, with his own face. Then he transforms his face into other faces.
“There’s a George Washington, Curious George (for example),” he said. “It physically represents something completely different. There is a two-way connection.”
This process is a way to connect with other cultures, describing them through himself as everyone must see through their own eyes and experiences.
“I try and learn a lot about those things but still making them through my own interpretation,” he said.
The whimsical nature of Rodriguez’s work is reflected in subject matter and decoration. He has a series called the “Mexican Zodiac,” using expressive creatures and a series of dresses, “In Costume” that speaks volumes about wearers without even a wearer in sight. He recently finished a large-scale installation for a new terminal at the Kansas City Airport – a series of nine jazz players, “Let the Music Take You,” incorporating Kansas City trademarks like the Art Institute, barbeque and jazz.
Arriving in Silver City for the CLAY Festival following a month travel his roles there include jurying the exhibition show called “Grace,” giving a talk at the opening of the show as well as having some of his own pieces in a side gallery at the same venue, Light Art Space, 209 W. Broadway St., Silver City. He is also teaching a workshop called “Embellished Stories.”
“I feel like the majority of my work now is really about community,” he said.
Rodriguez’s website is georgerodriguez.net and he can be found on Instagram under Gerogesclupts.
