Artist Entry: Bryan Nash Gill

Bryan Nash Gill is a sculptor out of Connecticut who works with natural materials to create two dimensional and three dimensional pieces. While all of his work is aesthetically and conceptually strong, the pieces I am drawn to the most are his two-dimensional relief prints that he creates from copying the rings on tree stumps. From his website, "Pat Rosoff an art critic for the Hartford Advocate wrote 'Bryan Nash Gill is not simply a naturalist, he is an artist rooted in nature he draws his vocabulary from the world of New England's woods.'"

I am really happy I found his work because not only are his relief prints simular to what I am currently working on, but his instillations are moving and do what I am trying to express. The beauty of nature is powerful, and if art galleries are where some people go to be moved, then nature has a place there. His various presentations of nature in the gallery space depends on not only the pieces but it seems the materials used as well. Also, I am falling in love with my project because I am responding to his prints. An article about his work said:

"For good reason, environmentalists are up in arms over rain forests being bulldozed for their timber value, one of the earth's greatest biological treasures left carved down to sad little stumps. If I were to play devil's advocate, I'd call up Bryan Nash Gill, who has translated a dismal tree stump into something beautiful. Through relief printing and a laborious rubbing technique, Bryan created the print Hemlock 82 ($4,000), essentially a manual Xerox of the gorgeous growth rings of one section of a tree. To do so, he rolls ink out onto the stump and places a piece of hand-crafted Washi paper onto the "print block." Then, he presses the paper with his fingertips little by little, imprinting the texture of the wood onto the surface of the paper. Jaw-droppingly beautiful. I love the idea that something dead can be given a new life with this technique — or a dozen lives, seeing as it's a limited-edition of 12" (Source).