A Student's Review of my Work

This is an excerpt by Rachel Indelicato, a young college student at St Louis Community College Meramec, whom I met this last week after my lecture/workshop there. She was required by her teacher, Jim Ibur, to write a review of a themed exhibit that he curated called "Death and Rebirth". I contributed with the two pieces that are shown in this blog. Rachel is quite the writer and I like her insight into my work. She has a bright future.

Death and Rebirth

There were two sculptures that especially caught my eye.  They were by a man named Russell Wrankle.  I was immediately drawn to their smooth, matte look.  The first was Cancer.  This piece depicted a sitting hare with a crab claw cutting through its skin.  The hare had a somewhat comical, yet still serious, look to it; the face had a humanistic startled expression and the body appeared tense.  The rabbit is a stout primary yellow and the crab claw is an eye catching, bright primary red.  To me, the hare symbolizes agility and longevity.  The crab claw, cancer, weakness, and death.  This makes me think of someone who may be fit and healthy, but had his or her life cut short by cancer, or is battling cancer.  

The piece next to it was called Leporidae.  Leporidae is the scientific family of hares and rabbits.  In this sculpture, the hare is standing on his neck and shoulders with his back straight and feet in the air.  In his feet he is holding the skull of what seems to be another hare.  The hare is in a silly position.  He is playing with death.  He has the same smooth look as the yellow hare, but he has a tame, light vermillion color to him.  The skull is stark white.  When I saw these pieces, I saw them as a pair playing off each other.  A force of death is overpowering the first hare, and the second is entertaining himself with it.