John Gardner

JohnGardnerArt

Artist Profile

My sculptural work in wood explores the connection between my creative future and past experience. I express my love of nature, gardening, and landscaping through the use of found objects, natural and repurposed wood, particularly the branches, roots and trunks of trees. My work includes intaglio prints, abstract sculpture and semi-functional furniture, primarily tables and chairs. My emphasis on wild natural forms emerging from finished wood boards and beams is a metaphor for the creative artist emerging from the constrained finished life of a business manager.

The tree connects us with the earth, the air and water. The miracles of photosynthesis and transpiration, the movement of life from the roots of a tree through the wood of the trunk and branches, complete the regeneration of life from the decaying wood that builds the soil. This transformation creates life, not possible without the tree, and I become part of the process through the creation of art.

I am influenced by Asian art, growing Bonsai trees for twenty years, the work of George Nakashima, and the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, especially his affinity for Japanese art forms and his goal of grounding the inner sp...

Queens University of Charlotte, B.A., Studio Art 2012
University of Vermont, B.A., History 1974
Phillips Exeter Academy '67

Alumni Invitational Art Exhibit, March 7 - April 7, 2014
Max L. Jackson Gallery, Watkins Building, Queens University of Charlotte
Charlotte, NC

Mint Hill Town Hall Fall Exhibition, Mint Hill, NC 2013

Collaboration with Nature, Senior Show, 2012
Max L. Jackson Gallery, Watkins Building, Queens University of Charlotte, Charlotte, NC