The Art of Charles Pilkey ARTIST'S STATEMENT

The sculptor - a beachcomber wandering the boundless shore of the world, collecting unusual wave-washed shapes and assembling them into artworks. But the shore is the edge of the unconscious and the wave-washed shapes are the flotsam and jetsam of World Culture, tossed up by the tides of time. It`s humbling to consider how ancient the lineage of sculpture is; by some reckoning it goes back tens of thousands of years. Certain 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; My allegiance is to the individualistic visionaries of the past - Bosch, Sesshu and others -  more than to any contemporary movement. I am at once home everywhere and nowhere. My style is no style and every style. My technique is none; The works just flow from my hands like dreams. I worship no higher power, save the creative spirit of the human mind. That is all.

SELECTED SHOWS St. Elmo, Chattanooga, TN Commission, 2013 Salisbury Outdoor Sculpture Show Salisbury, NC 2012 Hickory Grove Public Library Commission Charlotte, NC, 2010 Hillsborough Sculpture Tour Hillsborough, NC 2011, Juror's Prize 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

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