"Soaring" Painting

James Asher Caplan is an American sculptor and painter. Childhood surgeries would inspire his lifelong interest in the human form, which features heavily in his art. He began sculpting at age fourteen at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in his native Philadelphia, where he was a student of noted sculptor and woodcarver Joe Greenberg. Caplan also sculpted with Drs. Abe Zusserman and Abraham Rakoff, who aided in his study of human anatomy. Caplan was mentored by Italian-born American artist Harry Bertoia. He was a frequent visitor to the nearby Auguste Rodin Museum, where he would sculpt in clay from the French sculptor’s figures. Caplan was most impressed by Rodin's intentional and slight distortion of form to suggest movement. Greenberg’s teachings and Rodin’s enduring influence are driving forces behind Caplan’s work. Caplan enjoys harvesting scrap wood from barns and buildings, and scrap metal from recycling yards for his sculptures, giving new life to materials that would otherwise be forgotten. He also enjoys pairing music with visual mediums, as seen in his sculpture Life’s Folly, made from the frame of a violin.