Carl Reed - In Site Into Process

Water Ring with Outliers, 2013. Painted steel and wood. Photo courtesy the artist.

The following post was originally written in 2014, just prior to the opening of a group sculpture exhibit at the Denver Botanic Gardens. It's primarily a photo essay focusing on the creation of artist and Colorado College Professor Emeritus Carl Reed's contribution, and one of my favorite posts to work on (as well as the one which necessarily took the most time). All of the work-in-progress and installation photos were taken by yours truly either at the Colorado College Art Department's 3D Arts Shop, where Reed fabricated the work, or at the Denver Botanic Gardens, where he and I installed it. 

The Denver Botanic Gardens will soon be highlighting the artistic work of twelve Colorado sculptors in an outdoor exhibit entitled Catalyst: Colorado Sculpture.

Opening May 4 at 9 am and running through January 12, 2014, the exhibition showcases the work of artists Emmett Culligan, Kim Dickey, Linda Fleming, Nancy Lovendahl, Terry Maker, Robert Mangold, Patrick Marold, Andy Miller, Pard Morrison, Carl Reed, Yoshitomo Saito, and James Surls, in cooperation with Goodwin Fine Art, Robischon Gallery, and the William Havu Gallery. Supporting the exhibition are UMB Bank, Colorado Creative Industries, and the Scientific & Cultural Facilities District (SCFD).   

Today I primarily regard the work of participating sculptor Carl Reed, Professor of Art, Emeritus at the Colorado College, and frequent summer workshop instructor at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center, who has just completed a sculpture titled Water Ring with Outliers, consisting of three separate elements created and placed specifically for a site in the gardens. 

Reed explained that although he has, in some of his past work, intentionally hidden portions of the creative process for aesthetic reasons, with Water Ring with Outliers he wanted allow evidence of every stage of its fabrication in the finished, three segmented piece. Therefore, the following photo-centric and, after this brief intro, largely text-free post is intended as visual documentation of the Reed's process which, in a way, mirrors his methodology. Today, I want Carl Reed's choice of material, technique, tool, mark making, form, and color to do most of the talking. 

All of the following photos were taken either at the Colorado College Art Department's 3D Arts Shop, where Reed fabricated the work, or at the Denver Botanic Gardens, where he recently installed it.

The remaining photos were taken onsite at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

This photo and the two following: Water Ring with Outliers, 2013. Painted steel and wood. Photos courtesy the artist.

For my artistic sensibility, Carl Reed has the Midas touch in terms of his ability to turn 'base', raw material into transcendent artistic work. His cleaving of the non-essential and penetrating, keen-eyed mastery of the three-dimensionality of sculptural work is nonpareil. I want to thank him for allowing us to get a glimpse of his methodology in creating Water Ring with Outliers today. More of Carl Reed's work may be found on his website, linked here. 

Reed is represented by the Robischon Gallery in Denver.