Name:         Robert Dewaele

Location:        Concil Bluffs, Iowa

Medium:        Wood and Metal

Technique:     Sculpting 

ARTIST STATEMENT

I strive to emphasize and augment the natural beauty of the materials that are used on my sculptures. I find the shapes that occur in nature to be the ones that most directly influence my designs."

I have specialized in 3-dimensional wood sculptures and am now adding the elements of bronze accent to my work. Additionally, I am branching out into creating sculptural based furnishings, such as, carved pedestal dining and conference tables.

Robert grew up on a farm near Crescent, Iowa. He always enjoyed working with his hands and observing nature. Wood sculpting is a natural extension of his early interests.

Twisting, Turning, Examining front and back, Scrutinizing perspective and figure proportion, Robert Dewaele describes his work as "subtractive sculpture rather than additive." He starts with an object, a mass. and takes away from it to achieve his goal.

Dewaele looks forward to hiking through the area woodlands hunting for raw materials. The shape of the raw wood determines the task ahead. As he explains it, the -material is first and I conform to it. "The end result is conceived when I start on it."

Dewaele credits his art teacher. Miriam Boyd at Abraham Lincoln High School, for inspiring his creativity. He says she allowed him to work independently and go at his own pace, and that was all he needed to compel him forward. Growing up in a rural area gave him opportunities to be outdoors as he worked in the field's on his parents' farm. He continued his studies at Iowa Western Community College and Bellevue University, learning clay, casting and wood sculpture.

Dewaele has shown his work at the Village Art Gallery and the Passageway Gallery, both in the Old Market area of Omaha. Since 1998 he has been full time at the Artists' Cooperative Gallery, also in the Old Market. His creations can be seen in various places around the Omaha Council Bluffs metro area, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, New York and Toronto.