Things as They Appear to Be:
The online portfolio and weblog of artworks and articles by Arnold Patrick Martin.
Artist Statement:
The playful monumentality of my sculptures present internally irreconcilable forms rendered plausible through the projected, abstract, and gestalt qualities of their assembly. These constructions are as internally contradictory as they are at odds with their environment, which is to say any environment; they are the embodiment of artifice. They are frameworks, merely skeletons, born of fantastical absurdity as models which only live fully in the imagination of an observer. Minimal information provides only a scaffold intended to be fleshed out through the interpretation of the viewer creating a sense of conflict and contradiction between what is seen and what is known; what is real and what can only be imagined. In other words: these sculptures are a reflection of the 21st century condition; its conflict, contradiction, and fluctuating narration of reality.
-Arnold Martin 2012
Biography
Originally from Flint Michigan, Arnold attended college at Wayne State University in Detroit Michigan where he earned his BFA is Sculpture and Metalsmithing. Arnold is an artist and designer and most recently earned his MFA in Studio Art from the University of Wisconsin in Madison in the spring of 2011. Since 2011 Arnold’s studio practice has moved from Madison Wisconsin, to Orange California. He has taught sculpture at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and worked as a designer at Drift Studio in Mt. Horeb WI. He was the GLS Artist in Residence from 2010-12 for Games+Learning+Society at UW Madison. For the past two years he has curated an annual art exhibition at the GLS Conference focusing on Art and Games. He works collaboratively and individually on public art projects around the country. Arnold’s studio work is primarily three-dimensional, sculptural, and physical; his process is a hybrid of digital design and 3D modeling employed in the production of physical objects. Using digital design tools and a variety of materials and processes he works to create fantastical, self-contradictory and yet subtly plausible sculptures. Recently Arnold has employed 3D printing to create a series of modular and interchangeable snap-fit models which have been exhibited in San Diego and featured on the maker site Thingiverse as well as BoingBoing.
Arnold Martin was the GLS Artist-in-Residence from 2010-2011 and curates the GLS Art and Games Exhibition.
Art works by Arnold Patrick Martin. All works and images copyright Arnold Patrick Martin 2010.
Contact: arnie [dot] martin [@] gmail [dot] com