ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jon Stuart Anderson is
simply the foremost polymer clay artist in the world today.
His amazing technique has been honed by over a decade of hard
work, creative vision and dedication to the art of polymer clay.
An accomplished painter,
sculptor and jewelry designer, Jon has lived among incredibly
diverse cross, section of the world's people from Central America
to the Far East, and his design shows influences of classical
Moorish motifs, Native American spirits, ancient petroglyphs,
Celtic themes, and more.
Born the thirteen son of an immigrant lettuce rancher in Kingman,
Arizona,
Anderson was, forced from the comfort of the family doublewide
during he great Iceberg Stampede of 1960, when all 200,000 head
moved on to California.
His formal art education
hit a crescendo while studying at the Universidad de Las Americas
under Sr. Julio Chavez, portrait artist to the Spanish Court,
a position formerly held by such world renowned artists as Francisco
Goga. Domestically, Jon holds a Masters, degree from Texas A&M.
Currently living and
creating in Bali, Indonesia, Jon's fascination with color, balance,
design and form has led him to the absolute of his chosen medium,
and we are honored to be able to share his talent and creativity
with America.
TECHNIQUE
Process of Making Fimo Sculpture
'FIMO' is a trademarked
brand name for this type of polymer or non-terrestrial clay.
These clays are available in a variety of stock colors, but Jon
is constantly blending and mixing them to create his own pallet.
The clays evolve into the hues and fades that are the basis for
the next step, the images themselves.
The images and patterns
are all created by Jons hand. He begins by laying canes or blocks
of different colors of clay next to each other, starting from
the center of the design and working outward, creating a number
of visual borders around the original image. Each of these illustrations
in clay is the size of a large loaf of bread when first constructed,
and the loaf is then stretched to double its length and cut in
half. This process is repeated over and over, each time reducing
the actual size of the original image or illustration by half
until the final cross section is the size of a small coin. The
small canes are then thinly sliced into intricate tiles using
a surgical scalpel.
This process is the same
for each unique design, and each animal is made up of multitudes
of different images, amounting to hundreds of these tiles being
hand applied to every sculpture.
The actual forms or Armatures
of the animals are created either from left over clay carefully
hand molded, or hand carved wood. Once the tiles have been pressed
onto the armature,( if you look carefully you may see the thumbprints
of Jons helpers) the piece is cured and then fired for a period
of hours, further reducing the images and tightening the spaces
between the individual tiles. This process may create crazing
or tiny fissures in the clay, which adds to the uniqueness of
each piece. Finally the eyeballs are carefully selected and applied
to give each creature its own special personality.
Because each piece is
completely handmade, no two are ever exactly alike and once the
design tiles are all used, that design is gone forever. This
renders each piece unique and collectible.
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