The Art of Charles Pilkey ARTIST'S STATEMENT

The sculptor - a beachcomber wandering the boundless shore of the world, collecting pretty shells and unusual wave-washed shapes and assembling them into artworks. But the shore is the edge of the unconscious and the shells and wave-washed shapes are the flotsam and jetsam of World Culture, tossed up by the waves of time. It`s humbling to consider how ancient the lineage of sculpture is; by some reckoning it goes back several hundred thousand years. Some issues - love, birth, death - have always been of interest to the sculptor. Other issues have changed with the advance of technology. But the technical and formal concerns of Phidias, Unkei, Michelangelo and all the other masters of form, are much the same for the contemporary artist. And like them, we too want to give free flight to private visions, even while feeling the cold chain of mortality tugging at our throats. I`ve been influenced by everyone and no one. Rodin, Noguchi, Japanese gardens and tribal art were early influences on my work, but in recent years I`ve gone directly to nature for inspiration. My allegiance is more to the unique, highly individualistic visionaries of the past -  Bosch, Blake, Shitao and others - than to any contemporary movement. My work can best  be seen as a reaction to the most pressing issue of our times - how to live a good life in an age of burgeoning technology. One response has been to make simple abstract forms derived from nature - objects of beauty that function to relax the mind and offer escape from the exigencies of daily life. The other response has been to make works that deal directly with the theme of technology. Their purpose is to engage the viewer's intellect, to suggest ideas, to invite speculation about the rise of technology and our subsequent emergence from nature. Unfortunately, any response to technology must perforce, at least for the present, be hopelessly ambivalent. How could it be otherwise? The same medical technology that prolongs life has created a generation of elders who live without purpose. The same machineries of joy that entertain and inform have reduced us to mindless consumers. The same technology that draws the world together has dismantled the ecosystem and severed our spiritual links to the earth. Sculpture does not have the power to summon the future; no visual art does. The visual arts function best as objects of spiritual communion that draw attention to social issues, without actually resolving them. The real strength of the visual arts is in demonstrating how beauty and creative design can be essential tools for building utopia.

EDUCATION MFA Sculpture           University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 1994 BFA Sculpture            East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, 1987 BS Geology                University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 1978 SELECTED SHOWS Art Prize Grand Rapids, MI 2011 Hillsborough Sculpture Tour Hillsborough, NC 2011 Art Center One-man show, Carrboro, NC  2009 Cary Visual Art - Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition Cary, NC 2008 SOHO 20 Gallery International Competition, New York  2008 ANA Airlines International Children's Book Competition Second Prize  2008 International Sculpture Symposium  Shanghai, China  2005 Papier Blanc Gallery Fukuoka, One-man show 2005 Fukuoka Prefectural Art Museum  One-man Show  2004 International Sculpture Symposium Sangcheong, Korea  2003 Fukuoka City Art Museum Two-man Show  2002 6th Oita Asian International Sculpture Competition Oita, Japan  2001 Fukuoka Asian Art Museum International Art Exhibition 1999, 2001 Kumamoto Prefecture Museum National Competition Kumamoto, Japan 1997,2001     Kumamoto Rotary Prize  2001 International Terracotta Sculpture Symposium Eskisehir, Turkey,  2001 United Nations Korean War Memorial Park Sculpture Symposium Pusan, Korea, 2000 Elegant Gallery Shanghai 1999, 2000 International Sculpture Symposium Ichon, Korea 2000 Communication Design Association of Korea Seoul, Korea 2000 13th International Sculpture Symposium Carrara, Italy 1999 Silk Gallery Seoul  1999 Osaka International Airport Competition Osaka 1999 10th International Sculpture Competition Fujimi, Japan  1998 Bordeaux Museum of Art Group Show 1998 32nd Fukuoka Art Museum Competition 1st Prize Sculpture 1998 Osaka Modern Art Center National Print Competition 1998 Tokyo Museum of Modern Art  International Art Exhibition 1996,1997 National Library Print Exhibition Seoul, 1997 International Sculpture Symposium Kitakyushu, Japan, 1997 Lenexa National Art Competition Lenexa, Kansas 1993,1994 13th Annual Miniature Art Show El Dorado Gallery, Colorado Springs, CO  1996 Greater Midwest International Competition Warrensburg, MO 1993 Garret Gallery National Competition St. Louis, MO 1993 SODARCO International Competition Montreal, Canada 1993 (more than 120 group and private exhibitions in the US, Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Turkey, France and Italy)

Sculptor's Haiku Hands cratered and scarred Spitting out dust from his dreams He carves the moonlight