Sculptor and Mixed Media Artist - Tony Furtado
The number one inspiration for my art is the natural world and finding expressive and engaging ways to portray what I see and feel. Whether it is an accurate biological rendering or a stylized and surreal statement, my process almost always begins with me imagining a creature, person or structure (sometimes all at once) somehow differently. I try to capture the duality of what is fierce and fragile in the form as I find myself driven by the tension between survival and surrender, something we all endure as part of this wildly changing planet.
Most everything I make starts with a lump of clay or a soon-to-be slip-coated and fired bamboo skewer lattice-work form. Some of my work is glazed, but most of my pieces are surfaced with a tough, non-fired coating called Forton (a resin-based casting material) that I mix with metal powders (copper, iron and aluminum usually), which is cured and oxidized, giving it a look of bronze or distressed iron. I also frequently find myself utilizing other materials to complete a vision. For example, perhaps lacquer-coated paper stretched over a metal-coated wooden frame is just what I need to soften the unforgiving weight of the fired clay.
