Hugh Lassen, Figure
Hello, my name is Hugh Lassen. I'm an abstract organic sculptor. I live in Cherryfield, Maine and you are looking at a sculpture called Figure. Initially, I had a block of stone that came from a quarry up in Quebec that weighed maybe seven and a half thousand pounds. I made a plaster scale model of that block of stone and then carved a 10-inch or so sized model in plaster to figure out what I was trying to do. I submitted that to Sculpture at The Mount and it got accepted. So, this Spring, I've been hard at work making this sculpture. I am a direct carver, so the model is really just a guide. Once I get into the process of carving, I'm trying to respond to the different masses and forms as they are on the piece rather than just on the model. It's not just an exact enlargement.I'm very excited to be part of this show. And for me, I'm very interested in asymmetrical form, so I'm actually trying to encourage you to look at the form and want to walk around it and take it in – with the different aspects of it being surprising, so that you're actually encouraged to walk around the form. And that's how I tie my piece into the theme of the show, which is Movement. So, I hope I've been somewhat successful in making a compelling three-dimensional form that encourages you to move yourselves. I really appreciate being a part of this show and I thank you for taking the time to listen to me.
Harold Grinspoon, Twizzler
Harold Grinspoon is pleased to have Twizzler included in this year's exhibition, emphasizingMovement. As a sculptor who started his practice late in life in his 80s, after a lifetime ofother business, philanthropic, and personal pursuits, Harold has embraced movementin every facet of his life – including his sculpture practice – which grew out of a momentof inspiration from a downed tree on his property. Its stationary presence having been aconstant in his life for decades, he didn't want to simply have it removed. Instead, hereimagined it as a sculpture, and made it immortal. Freeing the tree from its static formby quartering it and creating a four-piece dance of movement, The Beauty of Naturewent on to be his first sculpture and first exhibited work, in that year's annual exhibitionhere at the Mount. Now in 2025, Twizzler exemplifies Grinspoon’s movement into othermaterials beyond trees. The reflective balls used in the work are expressions of outwardlight, aimed toward the viewer. They move with the wind, creating a dance of light in alldirections. Grinspoon's artistic and creative journey has also moved him to write poetryin recent years, and I will share one with you now, as you continue to gaze at hissculpture:I’d like to take a walkWould you like to join me?My legs aren’t so greatSo let’s take a walk through time–Our space and timeHere on Earth.What has your journey been like?Have you challenged yourselfTo new horizons–Or is the same-old same-oldStill your comfort spot?I’m curious what your answer may be.
Thomas Berger and David Adilman, Burdened Man
Burdened Man was co-created by David Adilman of Andover, MA and Thomas Berger of Kittery, ME. This sculpture depicts a person struggling under the weight of responsibility. He represents what many people feel, which is the burden of the struggles of life, which hinders movement and progression.The city on his back represents not only physical weight but also the burdens put upon a person by expectations from family and friends, obligations to the community, demands from schools and work, government regulations and cultural traditions.This sounds a little heavy, but the process of creation was a fun-filled and joyful collaboration.When we started the project, we were inspired by the shape of the stone. We saw the old houses of the village on the top and the person below, holding it up, right in the shape of the stone. We worked out the details in a clay model and used that as a guide to cut the stone. Cutting granite is hard work, but we had lots of laughs and fun along the way.We hope you enjoy spending some time with the Burdened Man!
Micajah Bienvenu, Nebula
My name is Micajah Bienvenu, and I am public artist specializing in stainless steel sculpture. As an artist, I am inspired by nature and science, particularly biology, astronomy and physics. The curve of a vine, the graceful tracing of a barn swallow's flight path, spiral forms found in solar systems and galaxies, these all excite my imagination. The curves of my sculptures often celebrate interconnectivity and personal connections. My main touchstone as an artist is to elicit “Wow.” Work that “wows” has the incredible ability to transport people if only for a moment into a space of joy and wonder. In a world where so many are weighed down with daily struggles, providing an uplifting escape can have a profound impact.Nebula was designed in a 3D modeling program which allows me to unroll the patterns and then cut the shapes on a CNC plasma cutting machine. After using a large disk sander, running up and down the forms in a controlled texture providing frenzy, the panels are reassembled in a “reverse banana peel method.”The word Nebula comes from Latin meaning “mist vapor, fog, smoke exhalation.” The sculpture suggests matter gathering in a nebula twisting and gathering into a star.The sculpture rests on a bearing, feel free to give it gentle turn.
Christopher Curtis, That Place in the Stars
My name is Christopher Curtis, my friends call me Chris, and I’m happy to be able to tell you a bit about my sculpture titled That Place in the Stars.The title references that mythical place we can go in our minds where everything is good and nothing goes wrong. The title, like the sculpture, is aspirational in nature, with the curved spire shooting upward like a church steeple, lifting our gaze skyward.The two stainless steel arcs combine for a very spare and, I think, elegant outcome. A lot of my work involves reduction to essential elements. Brancusi is one of my art heroes, along with Noguchi, but maybe Alberto Giacometti expressed it best, speaking about the lack of details in his tall spare figures, he said, “The more I take away, the bigger they get.”That Place in the Stars, reduced to two essential elements still manages to express the theme of this exhibition, Movement.I encourage you to experience the work by walking through it and touching it.
Pedro de Movellán, Meadowlark
Hello, my name is Pedro de Movellán, and this piece is called Meadowlark. What are your thoughts and feelings as you observe the sculpture? From the very beginning of my career as a kinetic sculptor, I never wanted to place a specific meaning or reason for creating a piece. The form you see here began as an experiment in time — the circular form with its rotating arms within it bring a sense of a clock or a watch. That, however, was not the final intent; there is a feeling of control or precision here. It comes from a deep need in myself to make sense of the world around me, in this work and most others as well. As I progressed in the creation of this work, this highly controlled aspect of it transformed into a more playful and random sculpture. The black elements moving playfully about within the confines of this protected space hint at this shift. My artwork in general is congruent with this dialogue throughout; finding the safety to explore new things within the comfort of my medium is the best way I can express this. The title came as I was observing one day a breezy, sunny, spring afternoon, and it felt like a bunch of young meadowlarks in their nest, restless, and waiting to fly off soon. I hope you enjoy being here for a few minutes, and have a chance to come away with your own interpretation. Thanks so much for visiting.
Robin Tost, Brunhilda
I'm Robin Tost, and Brunhilda is the latest in a series of animals and birds built with a skin of quilted metal over a steel frame. The process begins with my making a maquette of the sculpture out of papier mache and taking it to Rich Wansor, a talented blacksmith friend, who creates the frame for the piece with welded steel rods. It then comes back to me, and I spend months finding scrap metals in the colors I want, cutting them into the appropriate shapes, piercing them with a drill press and then sewing them onto the frame with wire using quilting stitches. As you might imagine, a sculpture as big as Brunhilda takes a lot of time to cut and sew the skin. I've been working on her for nine months.As I build my creatures, they do seem to take on personalities of their own, but Brunhilda was inspired by a real bear in one of the western National Parks who sits by the side of the road and waves at passing cars. Unfortunately, she's become very successful at mooching food from charmed visitors, and all she has to do is just sit there and wave.It's a bit of a stretch to have her in a show called "Movement" as her motion is limited, yet it's extremely effective as one can see by the size of her well-padded bottom.
Pamela Bonaguide, The Brides
Hello there, and welcome. My name is Pam Bonaguide. You’re looking at The Brides.These sculptures bring together two very different materials: cement and vintage wedding gowns. Cement is strong, industrial, and lasting. The gowns, on the other hand, are delicate, full of lace and fine detail. They’re soft and temporary. When a woman puts on a wedding dress, it often marks a turning point in her life. It’s a moment where everything starts to shift her identity, her role, the expectations around her.I was inspired by the writing of Edith Wharton. She wrote deeply about women and the social rules they lived under at a time when those rules were just beginning to be questioned. My sculptures reflect that same tension: the space between personal freedom and the weight of tradition.Each gown I use has a story. It was once worn, loved, and tucked away. By encasing it in cement, I’m preserving that moment and giving it a new voice. It becomes a kind of monument to change. A reminder that fleeting moments can leave lasting marks.Now, these Brides stand quietly beneath the trees, showing off their dresses once again. I hope you see in them not just the joy of a wedding day, but the quiet power of transformation, the moment when everything changes, and a new story begins.Thanks for spending some time here.
Kent Mikalsen, Smoke
Hi, name is Kent Mikalsen and you are likely standing in front of my sculpture named Smoke. It was carved from a pine beam that was originally harvested from our local forests during the Industrial Revolution. These magnificent two-hundred year old pine trees were used to build mills and heat homes in the late 1800’s. This beam was originally used in the construction of the mill that is now the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams.Although I enjoy the process of carving and using traditional hand tools, contemporary electric rotary tools, grinders etc., were required for this work. These old growth pine trees are nothing like the soft pine you find at Home Depot. They are dense and heavy with the hardness of maple or oak. There was a lot of resistance in carving this wood before the sculpture was allowed to reveal itself. Still, after three-hundred years of life and usefulness, I am grateful for the opportunity to reveal a new kind of beauty for this venerable old tree. Reminds me of the book “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein, where even after it is chopped down the tree still gives a small part of its original beauty in the form of a little sprout.I named this piece “Smoke” because it resembles smoke rising and then dissipating into the air. As a metaphor It has a deeper meaning for me. It reminds me that my journey here as a physical being is temporary, but perhaps continues in another form.
Peter Barrett, Trickster
Welcome to The Mount, and thank you for your interest in my piece, Trickster.Trickster is somewhere in between Jester, Juggler, Joker and Marionette.I’ve attempted to create some motion with the implied “balls”, that are short sections of pipe that pierce the main members, decreasing in diameter from bottom to top. These so-called balls culminate in the spheroid that dangles from the uppermost beam. The arc suggests a juggler’s talent.The smallest ball, near the base…is that his/her navel, or a dropped ball?I hope that the I-beam structure conjures up the sticks that a puppeteer might use to manipulate a marionette.Please, take a moment to walk around this Trickster that I’ve caught in motion, and try to figure out what else she/he might have up their sleeve!Thank you again for your interest in my piece.
Susan Zurles, La Bailaora
I’m Susan Zurles, a Connecticut sculptor, and you are standing in front of my marble piece, La Bailaora. This piece was inspired by the movement of a Flamenco dancer. Her head is held high, hands firmly planted on her hips, skirt swirling around her. She is self-possessed. She dances only for herself. She asserts her presence through the power of her dance.I took the idea for this sculpture along with my preliminary sketches to Vietnam. It was there that I first sculpted her in clay. All my work begins with clay. I love the feeling of clay in my hands, the way I can mold it and give form to my ideas.The clay model I constructed there presented both a problem and an opportunity. I had no way to transport raw clay back home. But I had often thought of having some of my sculptures put into marble. Vietnam has lots of natural marble in the mountains and many excellent craftsmen. I saw an opportunity to work with the carvers to translate my sculpture from soft clay to hard stone. But first I had to simplify the form, because the very thin edges of the skirt and shawl which worked so well in clay, would not work for marble.I traveled by motorcycle with a translator to the town of Danang to visit its marble workshops. Traveling to the workshops was quite an adventure. I was fascinated by the whole process of marble carving. I met many skilled artisans and ended up spending the winter with them, working together to translate my clay model into stone. We communicated with movement and gesture.The completed statue was shipped back the United States and I finally picked up La Bailaora in Boston. From conception of design to completion in stone. this project took us both halfway around the world. And she dances on.
Donna Bernstein, Living in Harmony
This sculpture, titled Living in Harmony, is crafted from white stoneware clay that has been marbleized with a cobalt stain and thrown on the potter’s wheel. The work is composed of sixty individual pieces.Each piece on its own may appear simple—even unremarkable—but when assembled together, they form a striking and unified whole. The sculpture becomes a community, where the beauty emerges not from any single part, but from the collective presence. It reflects the idea that through collaboration and connection, we create peace, harmony, and beauty.Donna Bernstein works out of her studio, The Clay Cottage, in Richmond, Massachusetts, where she welcomes visitors to see her process firsthand. You can also find her work on Instagram: @theclaycottagema.
David Skora, Free Flight
Free Flight explores the dream of movement and freedom against the weight of immobility. Wing-like forms rise with visual and conceptual lightness, evoking the delicate balance between fragility and strength, nature and industry. Yet, the wheels—firmly anchored in the ground—speak to a poignant reality: the immigrant experience of yearning for flight while being held in place. This tension becomes the core of the sculpture’s emotional resonance.Through abstraction, the piece invites a spectrum of interpretations. Some may see a wildflower’s resilience against encroaching machinery, others a fleeting presence caught within constructed constraints. The possibility of harmony—or conflict—between organic growth and mechanical permanence creates a rich, contemplative space for viewers.Bold color accents command attention without dominating, allowing the sculpture to exist comfortably in both urban and natural landscapes. Its simplicity is its strength, offering a quiet, powerful contrast and inviting viewers to engage with layered meaning.
Sergei Isupov, Sculpture in the Trees | Ceramic Animals
Often when I walk through the forest or the park in nature, I see among the twigs and branches or growths on the trees, different creatures.They either sit quietly or spy on me. These are all just visions, but I get carried away and imagine more than is actually there. Sometimes I sketch them and then in the studio transfer them to a sculptural form. For a couple of years now, I have been playing this game with myself; I create animal sculptures and hide them somewhere in my garden. If you know where to look, you can see them, but they are hidden and only really visible in the winter. Otherwise, they hide so well that they are almost invisible and then appear in winter after the leaves are gone.At The Mount, I will do what I do for myself in a public setting for people who walk in the park and do not expect to see my creatures. If they see, it is good, and if they do not see it, it is even better. This means that my sculptures have merged with nature.
Patrick Goguen, Palm Lines
Hello. I’m Patrick Goguen. This is my piece, Palm Lines.Faint swipes of milky way meltsatellites streaking through celestial blanket.Whispering tongues of young love are faint in the distance.Behind youfaint waves lick fromthe literal unknown.Single track trailrepeats pedantic mantras,your mother teaches you to surrender emotions to the deep vast of your body.Pine tannins mix with the fermented sweetness of the sea.Ivy supplants façade,unbridled fear of unlivable ocean overgrows-You.Hands float body pretzeled.Yoga aggravates forgotten fault lines.fossilized emotions bubble up between convulsing breaths.Spinning coin unfolds wooden teeth, bouncing alongWasp bitten Fingernail.You wait for your fate to be determined.You wait for someone to tell you.what you want to hear.
Janice Corkin Rudolf, Vinyasa
My sculpture, Vinyasa, was inspired by a walk I took on Gooch's Beach in Kennebunk, Maine with my dog Brandy.While the sun glistened over the crashing waves, I was drawn to a group of people practicing yoga on the beach. I was amazed how each position looked like a sculpture, the way the people twisted, bent, and moved their bodies. I felt inspired to sculpt each time they changed positions.I was particularly drawn to a pose called "vinyasa." I enjoyed the interplay of the positive and negative space the participants created with their bodies and the composition it created.When I returned home, I went to my studio to sketch and mold the clay. As I worked, I imagined the sculpture I was creating living in my husband's garden, surrounded by delphiniums, peonies, and cascading nasturtiums. The resulting sculpture embodied not only the movement of yoga, but also took on an earthly, textured quality, reflective of the natural world outside my window.Once the clay model was complete, I took it to Sincere Metal Works in Amesbury, MA. They assisted as I took the sculpture from clay, to wax, and ultimately to bronze.When viewed from the front, the alluring finished bronze sculpture exudes a sense of elation. From the side, it embodies balance, with one foot grounded and arms reaching with intention, much like the figures did on Gooch's Beach.The interplay of the positive and negative space that took place during yoga was visible in the sculpture.
Michael Perusse, The Bird Show
My name is Mike Perusse. Welcome to The Bird Show! Our contestants are eager to show off their birds, or in one case, one bird joins the show on its own accord to present itself. The Bird Show is more than just about them, it's also about you. Intentionally left without colors, names, and faces to move your imagination to participate and envision who these characters are, what they are like, what colors they have, and how they will move in their show.As The Bird Show concept was being worked out it began to bring back memories of helping backstage at the year end recital for the local dance studio my younger sisters performed in. The chaos, the individualism, the proud parents, and the young children trying to maintain their composure but ready to move into playful chaos at a moment's opportunity.Despite The Bird Show being made from Pal Tiya, a cement-like clay, much of its form comes from the whimsy of a doodle. A desire to be animated, but with a hardness of stone, I worked to use gesture and silhouette to bring the characters to a moment where their actions were frozen, but ready to act to on not just what I thought they would do next, but where you the viewer would take them. Each of us gets to carry their stories forward.Thank you for visiting The Mount. Now, on to The Bird Show!
William Lanzillo, Reclamation
These works reference the often small and delicate growths of seedlings and vines. Imagining these delicate shapes in nature on an architectural scale changes viewers’ relationships to these forms and allows for a new appreciation of these familiar, organic, flowing shapes. They are drawings that blur the line between the three and two dimensional, both defining a volume, but also at times flattening into outlines. They use the repetition of thousands of small pieces or “marks” to create their sense of growth and motion. Though the materials are heavy and industrial, the extensive use of negative space allows for the forms to maintain a light and airy sensibility. Like a ghost or afterimage, only capturing faint outlines, the sculptures work to draw attention to the surrounding environment, at times disappearing into the foliage while also framing the sky behind them and providing a new perspective and perception of familiar or even mundane organic shapes.
Vivien Collens, Windswept
My name is Vivien Collens. My installation for this exhibition is called Windswept. Three of my sculptures are positioned here at The Mount to look like trees bending in the wind. Energy has been a frequent inspiration of my work for 45 years. Electricity, water, wind, and motion have often been the subject matter of my work. These three green sculptures are from the squirt series, conceived during a visit to a metal fabrication shop in 2017, when I had my first commission for a large public sculpture. There was a barrel there filled with strips of thin metal. I picked them up and was surprised how easily they bent. I was intrigued by the realization that rectangular metal strips in certain lengths and gauges could have a lovely fluid shape. A few years later, when I began fabricating my own metal sculpture, I began the squirt series, which exploits the fluid quality of metal and reminded me of the pressurized movement of water when it sprays. I was able to acquire a machine which uses hydraulics to bend a straight metal tube or pipe through rollers, which form it into a curve. The top part of the sculptures in the series has recently become more intricate, suggesting to me a Paisley pattern explosion. I was interested to learn that some people believe that the Paisley teardrop shape is derived from ancient symbols representing life and fertility, which I view as profound forms of energy.
Kathy Ruttenberg, In Sync
The sculpture titled In Sync was created in preparation for a public works exhibition which opened in 2018 through the Broadway Malls Association titled In Dreams Awake. As I began to visualize pieces for my proposal, themes from pieces of previous work came to mind. In Synch was a rethink of a sculpture I had made called Tree Hugger. The theme of this original sculpture was deeply personal but referred to the ability of people so distinct to transcend their differences in order to enjoy a dance together. The antlered deer man dancing in tandem with a tree lady was my own personal fairytale but became about humanity with a powerful message about diversity and acceptance once placed on NYC streets.With the theme being movement for this year’s exhibition at the Mount, In Sync seems a perfect addition.This sculpture of two mythological figures running in tandem was initially placed on 72nd and Broadway next to a subway entrance which created an essence of the figures rushing to catch a train. Each of the installments I have seen of this sculpture interestingly add to the story. The rural setting of the forest makes a perfect backdrop for the fairy tale drama of In Sync.Creating the exhibition of 6 sculptures for the installation In Dreams Awake took a year and a half. It was an exciting opportunity to create the first large scale bronze sculptures of my career. I created the patterns for the bronze castings with a foam base and then added oil clay to sculpt the details. I would visit the Rodin sculptures at the Met often and regularly did life drawings. I felt the challenge to make my fantasies believable to the discerning New York community. My growth as an artist was exponential creating this body of work for the Broadway Malls. “Nothing is impossible” was my take home from the experience.
Helen Duncan, Disperse
DISPERSE is a site-responsive art installation that draws inspiration from the resilience and quiet strength of native flora. Composed of semi-translucent porcelain clay forms delicately mounted on flexible steel rods, the work is designed to interact with its natural environment in a continuous dance of movement and light. As breezes pass through—whether gentle or gusty—the porcelain elements sway and flutter, echoing the fluidity of nature and the adaptability of the plants it references.Throughout the day, the installation engages with the sun’s shifting position. The porcelain subtly absorbs and reflects the evolving light, capturing the delicate pastel hues of dawn, the stark clarity of midday, and the golden tones of dusk. These organic changes in light enhance the installation’s ephemeral quality, creating a visual experience that is ever-changing and deeply rooted in the passage of time.As daylight fades, solar-powered lights embedded within the structure gradually activate. These lights illuminate the porcelain from within, creating a soft, glowing presence that transforms the space into a quiet, luminous landscape. The interplay of materials, light, and movement within DISPERSE evokes a sense of harmony with nature, honoring the enduring beauty and quiet resilience of native plant life.
Ben Sloat, Landscape Machine
I’m Ben Sloat, an artist based in Western Massachusetts. I’m Taiwanese-American, and this is my sculpture, Landscape Machine, which invites the viewer to move around the piece and observe different ways that the visuals of a landscape can be generated. In this work, you’ll notice that there are quite a number of frames within a frame, as well as optical devices that translate the color, focus, and magnification of the scenery. Please do not touch the piece, since it may have some sharp points and the rusty patina may stain your hands and clothes.I consider a landscape as not nature itself, but the way nature becomes kind of intensified and visualized, framed by personal, cultural, and technological aspects. The visual of a landscape is very much dependent on the decision-making and movement of the viewer, who can choose how they wish to visually interact with this piece. A landscape is also dependent on the transitions of light over the course of the day, as well as the changing seasons and weather, so a landscape is in constant movement and never a static, fixed visual.Overall, this structure has both Asian and Western cultural aspects. It has a pagoda shape of Fotomat kiosks, which had a Japanese parent company, and were popular structures around the United States from the 1960s to the 1990s, numbering up to 4,000 across the country. Typically located in mall parking lots, Fotomats were a location to drive up to and drop off your film, so I consider them a type of architecture that were made specifically for photography. I used a rusty steel as a structure since it’s a material in transition, which has a changing surface due to surrounding conditions. I hope this piece heightens your experience of the landscape around you.
Rachel Hayes, Color Story
I have found parallels with my art and Edith Wharton's vision for The Mount. For this installation, ‘Color Story’, I began each piece by organizing the blocks of color into pleasing arrangements, based on grids, not unlike designing a garden into segments. There is also a wild side to observe in both my art and a seemingly tamed garden. Winds are whipping the fabrics while sun and shadow interact with the colors - it is the unexpected paired with the rules of formal arrangements that makes both gardens and hopefully my artwork interesting to observe. I want my art to become part of this lovely environment, not overpowering, but highlighting a moment in time. Textiles have the power of scale, and are also a graceful way to respond to nature - the materials can be as large as a tree, but also blow delicately like petals or leaves. I find this way of creating sculpture exhilarating.
Joy Brown, Sitter with Mask
Sitter with Mask is one of a series of large scale figures that I've been making in Shanghai at Purple Roof Atelier over the past 15 years. I make each figure in clay here in my studio in Kent, Connecticut, and it is fired in my wood firing tunnel kiln. That piece is then used as the form to make an armature in Shanghai and my assistant and I build in plaster on that armature to make this final form in actual size. The piece is then cast and finished in bronze and I open the eyes and mouth, which is a critical part of the piece.This figure holds a quiet peaceful space, radiating a warmth, drawing us in close to touch and play. It has an intimate yet universal spirit, transcending culture, gender and age, that resonates with people from all walks of life. This piece is earth-bound, grounded yet there is so much movement and energy in the stillness of the moment. It is part of my life long exploration of the movement in stillness and the unseen connection, energy and flow that exists in the in-between.
Craig Anderson, The Rising
I’m Craig Anderson and this is my sculpture, The Rising. The material is Corten steel which is designed to develop a stable layer of rust on its surface when exposed to the elements. This rust layer, or patina, is actually non-corrosive and acts as a protective barrier. Over time, the patina continues to become deeper in color and complexity while providing the practical benefit of needing little to no maintenance.When I start a piece, I embrace a memory or a feeling … then put my hands on the material and begin. It’s a hands-on intuitive process without a specific idea of what the final form will be.I first create a sculpture approximately 10 or 12 inches in height and when I like the form, I calculate the proportions to scale it up to the size you see in front of you and begin the build.As I began this sculpture, in addition to embracing a memory, I was also reflecting on the theme of Movement in this year’s exhibition at The Mount. I was striving for movement that will motivate you walk around the piece and experience it from all angles … as well as the movement that has occurred in my life over the past year.
