MY IDEA OF ART

I believe that very few things in the world are more sacred and beautiful than a tree, alone, on top of a hill. The solemn yet in constant movement silhouette of a tree has the power to move me. Still, always. Since I was a child I have silently observed the trees. I have loved them more and more since then and the conscious choice of entrusting my art to them has sprung from this deep love.

They are the perfect material because they always choose verticality; they can flex, bend, even break, but they will always try to go up and reach for the sky. Because to ascend, to rise, to look upward is the mission of their life, it is the primal law that is enshrined in their cells and that same law vivifies and motivates my art.

The fundamental task of artists is to guide upward whoever has refined senses and goodwill. Flying high. Meaning spiritual uplifting, as a gift to all, in order to let everyone believe in beauty. If we allow ourselves to create, then we are completely responsible for what we create. A true artist can reveal mystic truths and, according to me, he must strive tirelessly to look for beauty, for only Beauty will save us.

It doesn’t mean closing our eyes in front of reality, but transforming it, just like wood gets transfigured in my sculptures. A dense dialogue between the tree trunk, still but not silent or inert in front of me, and myself. Following lines, knots, venations and combining them with the winding elegance of the curves or the sharp tension of the angles, in order to exalt and glorify the human form, still explored and never completely so. Wood is a corruptible material, so it is human nature. Corruptible but steadfast. In its not being immutable lies its strength, and the same is the strength of man.

I sculpt wood because it’s what I love most in life. I sculpt because I couldn’t live without doing it and I have a sculptural vision of life. What is superfluous, unessential, falls to the ground, useless, just like wood chips under the strokes of my gouges.

I sculpt for Love. I love to sculpt.

Enrico Challier