Charles Zigmund

Wall SculptureAcrylic on Canvas

I’m interested in space in landscapes. Especially in space created by distances carved into our landscapes by the automobile and the modern structures it has created, like highways, overpasses and large bridges. As part of this, I am moved also by views of commonplace scenes most people ignore. Although we consciously ignore them, and save our viewing interest for scenes that are traditionally considered “beautiful,” these other images and our passing through them impress themselves on our unconscious minds as experiences. Especially if we grew up alongside them, and of course in some ways we are always still growing up.

I like to bring these ignored places into view. I’m moved by older structures standing like sentinels just outside the spaces carved into the landscape by the automobile. And by the pathos of natural creatures like trees facing off the predation of industrial structure. The contrast of old and new, like some leftover old homes I come upon as I drive by an airport, moves and fascinates me. And a horde of cars and trucks tearing though an under-street-level expressway evokes two kinds of change: the change of the evolving industrial landscape and the pace of their insistent motion piercing the quiet of the neighborhood above.

I also sometimes give in to more traditional pastoral scenes of trees and landscapes – after all, I’m only human and I enjoy a few moments of tranquility also. I express my involvements with all these things and the emotions they evoke in me, alternately in paintings and in wall sculptures.

chaszigmund@gmail.com