"Aphrodite" by William Hunter, 1998

14h x 6.5 diameter

Turned wood sculpture, 1998. Bill Hunter: "The essence of my of work is abstract and it's process of subtractive sculpturing is a spontaneous, unspoken dialogue between me and that work. It is a meditative process of imagination, appraisal, decision and action. My work is meant to spark an elusive emotion, awaken a memory and explore the spiritual and metaphysical dimensions of our lives. I use the vessel - humanity’s oldest and richest metaphor - as a vehicle. Through subtractive sculpturing, I’m building a visual language to express this emotional sub-context and elicit a contemplative response. My motive is to embody an essence of life and growth ... even transformation... without depicting a particular plant, shell, textured shoreline or specific narrative. By reconstructing various sculptured rhythms, I convey my poetic impressions of the natural world. Rhythm and transformation, powerful elements in my life, are manifested in the metaphorical vessel. My work and my days and seasons are rhythmic cycles of insight, breakthrough, exploration, execution and refinement. There are days of passionate, timeless creation. Those days are balanced with the rhythms necessary to realize a concept. It begins with the hard physical work and moves forward in stages of definition. Each series has its own cyclic rhythm of refinement and expansion which can lead to dynamic transformation." Hunter's work is in numerous museum collections including: Cincinnati Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mobile Museum of Art, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA, Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY, National Museum of American Art, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Museum of Fine Arts, Arizona State University, Center for Art in Wood, Philadelphia, PA, Craft & Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA, Oakland Museum, High Museum, Atlanta, GA, Chicago Institute of Art, Hawaii Contemporary Art Museum, Detroit Institute of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Cornell Museum, Ithaca, New York, Rhode Island School of Design, The Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Charlotte, NC, Decorative Arts Museum of Little Rock, AR, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT, Long Beach Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Arts