Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library | gallery ~ kansas_loses_by

Welcome to the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library

Open today from 12pm to 9pm • August 1, 2010

Jim Brothers Plains Destiny

The sculpture depicts a Native American hunter at the moment of spearing a bison. As Jim Brothers says, "it's not clear who will win." The buffalo turns to defend himself with his horns, and the horse rears as the hunter aims his spear.
Jim told us that he worked on this piece for more than ten years, maybe up to twenty. Cutting, bending, welding, Jim worked the steel surfaces to form the skeletal and muscular shapes. He also used pieces of scrap wire to create web-like patterns across the form. This opens up the sculpture, so you see both the outside of the form, and through it to the inside of the piece.
Jim had friends help cut the steel into the buffalo's fur, so the project included most of the people he knows. (He said he'd hand them some steel and a pair of tin snips, and make them cut out some pieces before he'd give them a beer. That cracks me up.)
All those individual pieces of triangular steel curl, making the thick hair of the bison. Again, Jim put them together with space between them. That adds to the depth, the contrast, and the overall energy. It's almost like the hair is writhing as the animal runs.
Putting two pieces of steel together and welding them means the artist gets a line along the joint. But Jim took that idea further. He did not want a network of seams. Jim used the welder almost like a pencil, putting a texture of welded bumps over the entire piece. That alone had to have taken weeks. This texture makes the whole piece seem alive. The energy Jim captures in the pose of the bison and the hunter carries over the whole surface.
The Sabatini Gallery is pleased to feature Convergence, and we invite you to the programs featuring these artists.