Baxter Rains Gallery Walk - Translating Abstract

Landscape of Classic Abstract Sculpture

Baxter Rains

Alien Wave and Juxtasexus

In this Gallery Walk, the artist's emotions surface as he explains a facet of the content. By no means does Baxter perceive that he can restrict the viewers' sensibilities but that the sculptures remain open to individual interpretations.

Baxter Rains:

The titles of artworks may seem as didactic as the artwork itself. On viewing abstract art, some people may have a hard time finding relevance to the sculpture or translating the abstract work so it is pertinent in their own lives. As an artist, it seems part of my responsibility to select titles which help viewers through that transition.

"Alien Wave" (1992), Brazilian pepperwood and fossilized coral, 33"x19"x18"

The Alien part of the title comes from the fact that nobody likes Brazilian pepperwood trees and yet it is so beautiful. This particular tree we found when my wife [sculptress Barbara Osmundesn www.BarbaraOsmundsen.com ] and I were canoeing on the Banana River when we canoed past this house and men were cutting down this large strange and gorgeous tree. It was a strange tree to us. The wood is bright orange. We stopped and asked if we could have the wood and they were most happy to give it to us. We became friends with the owners and also got several pieces of sculpture out of that wood.

The tree was in the process of dying from some insects, which later I found out to be Powder Post beetles. I had an extremely hard time killing off the beetles…so they wouldn't sculpt the wood from the inside out. The 'Wave' part of “Alien Wave” means an unfamiliar force coming into my life.

“Juxtasexus” (1994), eucalyptus, fossilized coral, stainless steel, 59”x28”x20”

Basically it means one sex superimposed upon another and it does not matter which one is which. It is a merging of the sexes into a complete being. Masculine or feminine, gender doesn’t matter. We are dealing with a soul, which has no sex but yet the earthly plane is involved. The form of the piece has meaning that I can’t fully describe and yet without that form the thing, the sculptural entity, would not exist. The imagery is obvious, which is male and which is female. The overall-ness of it has the vitality of both sexes but the emphasis is on neither.

The top portion of the piece revolves to the touch. With a movement of just a degree or two, the wood sculpture changes it's attitude. It is very much like men and women; we change our attitudes simply by moving around.