JERRY JOSLIN
1942 - 2007Jerry
Joslin was a modern master of representational figurative sculpture. It was
his chosen discipline because it offered the greatest challenge “…to express
my deepest feelings, intuition, inspiration and perception, all in terms
that others can understand and appreciate…The human figure is undeniably the
touchstone to art in any era.”
His sculpture is imbued with a lyrical
romance that carries the traditions of the old European masters onward into
the new millennia with a fresh contemporary narrative. Look closely at
Joslin’s work and you see more than figurative interplay with precise
execution. Implicit in each sculpture is a personal communication that
exposes the intellect of this artist. His designs exude the tension and
release that animate his composition.
John Guernsey, an Oregon journalist described
Joslin as "...a man who dreams many dreams and then makes them come true."
Born in Portland, Oregon in 1942, graduated
from Portland State College in 1966, Joslin spent a restless decade studying
various art forms while serving as Captain aboard the U.S.G.S. research
vessel Polaris, then cruised throughout the South Pacific on his own
sailboat and lived with the natives in the Tuamotos and Marquesas.
In 1979 Joslin was riveted by the passion
that would shape his future. He became a student of sculpture. Working in
stone, wax, and clay, he studied throughout the length and breadth of Europe
and with characteristic self-discipline became a master sculptor. Jerry
Joslin owed no allegiance to any school but drank deep from life's
experience and masterfully sculpted his unique personal images into
immutable statements.
Attesting to his pre-eminence among
contemporary figurative sculptors, Joslin's impressive body of work, created
over the last quarter century, is represented in many museums, and public
and private collections around the world.
Jerry Joslin’s son, Sergei Joslin, worked
closely with Jerry as an understudy for 17 years. Sergei is now continuing
the Joslin legacy by casting his own work and finishing the works in
progress that the Master has left unfinished.
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