Dynamic designs; Sculptures bring 'Energy and Form' to Port's waterfront

Gilbert Boro believes the greatest reward in creating art is to share it with others.

So when he saw two of his large-scale sculptures attracting attention soon after they were installed this week on the Newburyport waterfront, the Connecticut sculptor couldn't have been more pleased.

He watched as his two pieces — a towering, welded steel abstract called "Buckingham Blue" and a stone and chain metaphor titled "Prometheus Bound" — drew in both young and old. Adults seemed to gather around the sculptures trying to figure out their logic, while kids immediately tried to climb on them, he said.

"They elicited a real response, which is really great for an artist to see," Boro said. "I always love to see kids and people playing on them. I always want people to touch these things."

The public will have the next year to touch and contemplate both of Boro's pieces. They are two of four new sculptures being featured in the seventh yearlong display at Somerby's Landing Sculpture Park. The outdoor park is located at the western edge of the Newburyport boardwalk near The Black Cow restaurant.

Titled "Energy and Form," curator Jay Havighurst said the new exhibit aims to explore myth and spirit through various constructions of sculptural form.

The four new sculptures — Boro's pieces together with a woven sphere by Lisa Victoria of Merrimac and a larger-than-life horse named "Clyde" by James Burnes of Weston and New Mexico — represent a range of approaches and materials, including logs and grapevines, he said.

"Sculpture isn't just one language," said Havighurst, a sculptor who works out of Essex. "It's made up of all different kinds of languages, of working with different materials.

"The idea around the park is to offer different textures and different forms and different materials so the public doesn't see just one type of sculpture. For it to work, you really have to have a more broad perspective."

While Boro's two pieces are studies in contrasts in both design and materials, they share an underlying maritime theme. For Boro, bringing them to Newburyport is especially fitting. It's where he bought his first sailboat almost 40 years ago and where his family spent its early years boating.

"I have a real affinity for Newburyport," said Boro, an architect from Cambridge who now lives in Old Lyme, Conn., where he displays many of his sculptures on the 41�Ñ2 acres surrounding his home and studio.

Boro's "Prometheus Bound" explores a character in Greek mythology, while leaving the myth of Prometheus and the eagle that attacks him open to one's imagination. Standing more than 5 feet tall, the piece features a large rough-cut stone that appears to be floating, but is actually bound by old, rusted chains that literally lift it in the air. It's being shown for the first time in Newburyport.

"It's a visual thing. You see a 700- to 800-pound stone sitting on the chain supporting it," Boro said. "It seems to defy logic."

Constructed of welded steel plates, Boro's "Buckingham Blue" features curved surfaces extending as much as 8 feet into the sky. Part of a series called "After the Race II," Boro said the intersecting planes are intended to energize negative and positive spaces around and within the sculpture. It is painted a majestic-looking Buckingham Blue to reflect the light and energy of day and light.

"I really like sculpture to be not only something in space, but something that creates its own place in space," Boro said.

Built especially for display in Newburyport, Burnes' "Clyde" seeks to capture the energy of the horse's spirit. It is sculpted from salvaged logs with unusual contours, combined with welded and forged steel covered with a patina for an aged look. The end result creates the realistic gestures of a horse's stance.

Burnes, who splits his time between Weston and New Mexico, works in weathered wood, steel and stone to produce abstracted animal forms ranging from table pieces to life-sized and larger outdoor installations.

"His animals have a different quality than I've ever seen," Havighurst said. "From a distance, you'd think this horse sculpture is real. It's really going to stand out. People are going to want to go up to it and see how it's put together."

Victoria's "Orb" comes to Somerby's following its appearance in the Outdoor Sculpture at Maudslay show earlier this fall at Newburyport's Maudslay State Park.

Havighurst said Victoria's woven design of sinewy grapevines around a wire framework intrigued him when he saw it at Maudslay, and he approached her with an offer to bring it to the waterfront.

"It just inhabits space in a way no other material can do, with light coming through it," said Havighurst, who added that he seeks to include local artists in every exhibit at Somerby's.

A clay artist primarily, Victoria said "Orb" offered a chance to break out into another medium. She came up with the idea to recycle grapevines after seeing so much brush destroyed after last winter's severe ice storm.

Calling the creation of her 61�Ñ2-by-8-foot "Orb" a "giant weaving project," Victoria said the piece offers a contrast to the heavier sculptures within the park.

"('Orb') is very, very organic, very abstract," said Victoria, who teaches ceramics classes at Purple Sage Pottery in Merrimac and is also a professional chef. "I think in some ways it's very poetic. It alludes to a lot of different things, energy in motion, heavenly bodies, spheres, cycles and globes."

Victoria has positioned solar lights inside "Orb" to give off a glow at night. "There's just enough light coming through it that it almost floats," she said.

Somerby's Landing began seven years ago as a venue to spotlight new ideas in form by regional artists. Each year, a new collection of sculptures is brought in to join the pieces that are on permanent display.

The four newly added temporary pieces will coexist with three existing sculptures that have been gifted to the city through private and public donations: Robert Motes' "An Imagined Place," Wendy Klemperer's "Elk" and Dale Rogers' "Another God Day.

An eighth piece — Rob Hitzig's "Dog Walker," which was installed for last year's show — will remain on display at Somerby's until the spring when it will be relocated to Newburyport's new Clipper City Rail Trail along with some other pieces previously shown on the waterfront.

In selecting sculptures for the shows, Havighurst, who works with Newburyport Senior Planner Geordie Vining and Kimm Wilkinson of Newburyport's Firehouse Center for the Arts, said he looks for pieces that will interact with the waterfront while stimulating viewers young and old. In seven years, the contemporary sculpture park has featured 33 works by 25 sculptors.

The park operates on just $3,500 a year, with each sculptor receiving $250 for loaning each piece, plus a $100 one-time travel fee. This current exhibit is being supported by New England Development.

"It's part of my sustainable philosophy," Havighurst said. "You really don't have to have $8 million to do art. You can have things like this happen without a lot of expense.

"... Culturally, it's really nice to offer a complement to the waterfront. It gives it a richer blend."

IF YOU GO

What: Opening reception for "Energy and Form," seventh yearlong exhibit for Somerby's Landing Sculpture Park

When: Saturday, 3 to 5 p.m.

Where: Along the Newburyport waterfront at the west end of the city boardwalk, off Merrimac Street near the Black Cow restaurant

How: Free. Rain location Firehouse Center for the Arts lower gallery, Market Square, Newburyport. For more on the sculpture park, visit www.artfluence.com/somerby.html.

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Sculptures bring 'Energy and Form' to Port's waterfront

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