Above Photo: Mark Lacko
I’m extremely honored that my poem “The Hands of Masters” is featured as part of the magnificent exhibit Portraits of Process at the The David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center in Pocantico Hills, NY.
Portraits of Process documents both the physical realities and personal narratives of contemporary American visual artists through their primary agent of creative process and expression: their hands.
On display from September 21 through December 23, 2023, the exhibition showcases 34 expertly crafted bronze life castings created for the American Artists’ Hand Archive (AAHA). Using a traditional lost-wax casting technique, AAHA founder Vanessa Hoheb and artistic director Thomas Donahue took the molds for the project in the subject artists’ studios, where each selected the gesture, context, and patina of their hands for the cast. Accompanied by Mark Lacko’s abstract close-up photographs of the casts, the resulting deeply personal sculptures record in intimate detail the relationship between artist and material, transcending simple physiological record to honor both the artists’ contributions to American art and the counter-impact of the creative process on the artists. The participating artists span boundaries of age, ethnicity, and gender to reveal the powerful common denominator of simple humanity.
Portraits of Process includes casts of the following artists’ hands:
