"Maturity and Its Muse" Exhibit - Artist Interviews Series Three

By Roxanne Phillips

We are pleased to present to you our third in a series of interviews with artists whose works are featured in our current juried exhibit at Art Saint Louis, "Maturity and Its Muse: Celebrating Artistic Experience 2021." This exhibit presents works by 45 STL regional artists from Missouri and Illinois who are age 70+. The show is currently on view in the Art Saint Louis Gallery at 1223 Pine Street in downtown St. Louis, Missouri (through May 20, 2021).

We are proud to introduce you to artists Bruce Morton and Sandy Kaplan.
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BRUCE MORTON

Featured in Art Saint Louis’ “Maturity and Its Muse: Celebrating Artistic Experience 2021”: Best of Show Award of Excellence recipient Bruce Morton, Bowen, IL. “MEN-Brian.” 2018. Photograph, Archival Pigment Print, 24”x18”. $500.
Artist’s statement: “In 2007 I returned to my childhood home in far west central Illinois. I had recently retired and wanted to spend the balance of my life photographing the region where I grew up. The first twelve years were spent producing three books of this region that was once known as “Forgottonia.” This portrait is part of a new series where I am focusing on the people. I have returned to using film using a Hasselblad camera. I am currently in my fifty-second year of photographing.”

Roxanne Phillips: Why do you make art?
Bruce Morton: Over time the act of photographing has been medicinal for me. Shooting always puts me in a better mood and makes my life so much more enjoyable.

RP: When did you begin to know what your art is about?
BM: Discovering yourself is always a challenge but a very important one. I realized what my work is about in the late 1970’s early 80’s. I was living in Arizona during that time and spent many a day alone in the desert. It was a very spiritual experience and one that I will always cherish.

Bruce Morton. “MEN - Fink.” 2017. Photograph, Archival Pigment Print, 18”x24”. $500.

RP: What was it that first prompted your career/activity as an artist?
BM: My first two years of college I was a mathematics major. After almost suffering a breakdown, I knew I had to change the direction I was headed. I always loved art, music, and taking pictures. So I decided to change my major to photography. This was in the fall of 1969 and have been photographing ever since.

Bruce Morton. “MEN - Shannon.” 2018. Photograph, Archival Pigment Print, 18”x24”. $500.

RP: What was your career path? How did you get from being an aspiring artist to doing it?
BM: After receiving two degrees in photography, BS and MFA, I was invited to be a visiting artist at a college in Great Britain. Upon returning to the US, I had no job and after experiencing much rain in England, I had to return to the Arizona desert. Eventually I got involved with desert landscaping to make a living. My talent to “see” helped with that career for over thirty years. In 2006 I retired and moved back to my childhood home in Illinois with the purpose to visually document this region I once so desperately wanted to leave. Since then I a participated in numerous exhibitions and published three books.

RP: What is the biggest point of inspiration for your artwork?
BM: I have mostly been inspired by masters of photography such as Lewis Hine, W. Eugene Smith, August Sander, Gary Winnogrand, and Ralph Gibson.

Bruce Morton. “MEN - Cattlemen.” 2019. Photograph, Archival Pigment Print, 18”x24”. $500.

RP: What advice would you give your younger artist self?
BM: Organize and preserve your work more carefully. Shoot more.

Bruce Morton. “MEN - Regan.” 2019. Photograph, Archival Pigment Print, 18”x24”. $500.

RP: Has rejection ever affected your creative process and if so, how?
BM: Rejection has played a major part in my entire life. I had to have a complete blood transfusion when I was born. My family thought that I would never amount to anything and now I am the sole survivor. It has been a struggle to prove to myself as well as others that I have something to offer this world. Something that will hopefully endure long after I’m gone. I photograph to try to bring some small amount of recognition to my subjects. Recognition that they too are worthy.

Bruce Morton. “MEN - Sonnie.” 2019. Photograph, Archival Pigment Print, 18”x24”. $500.

RP: On what are you currently working on?
BM: I am continuing photographing using a medium format camera to document the men, women, and land of this region in Illinois once known as “Forgottonia.”

Learn more about Bruce Morton: www.bruce-morton.net and www.facebook.com/Bruce-Morton-Photography-261557847931/
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SANDY KAPLAN

Featured in “Maturity and Its Muse: Celebrating Artistic Experience 2021” at Art Saint Louis: Award of Excellence recipient Sandy Kaplan. “Magritte’s Lovers II.” 2018. Terra Cotta Clay, Low Fire Glazes, 14”x14”x13”. $2,000.
Artist’s statement: “During my trip to New York in 2013, I went to the Museum of Modern Art to see the Rene Magritte exhibition, “The Mystery of the Ordinary.” I was intrigued by Magritte’s surreal paintings and bought the exhibit publication. After sculpting The Lovers with their faces draped in white fabric from the original painting, I decided to make Magritte’s Lovers II draped in black because it seemed to be even more mysterious in black.”

About the artist: "Since 1989, when I took my first hand building class from Jim Ibur at Craft Alliance while working in development at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, I have pursued a second career as a ceramic artist. I am still affiliated with Craft Alliance using their clay studio for over thirty years. I have shown and sold my work in exhibits through arts organizations and galleries, in St. Louis and other cities; most recently at "SOFA Chicago – 2019," represented by Gallery Victor Armendariz."  —Sandy Kaplan

Featured in “Maturity and Its Muse: Celebrating Artistic Experience 2021” at Art Saint Louis: Sandy Kaplan. “Artists and Their Palettes.” 2018. Terra Cotta Clay, Low Fire Glazes, 24”x18”x18”. $2,750.
Artist’s statement: “The narrative of Artists and Their Palettes is comprised of a vessel depicting self-portraits of artists and their pallets from actual paintings; Florine Stettheimer seated next to her painting, Rene Magritte painting his wife, and Frida Kahlo with her husband, Diego Rivera holding his palette. An easel holding one of Picasso’s paintings sits on top of an interior pedestal. At the base of the vessel are palettes of other famous artists that I replicated based on some research. I found it interesting that these artists created paintings with their palettes which were very much a part of their essence.”

Roxanne Phillips: When did you begin to know what your art was about?
Sandy Kaplan: When I started creating vessels with figures on them in the round, I began to see the narrative in my work; telling a story, sharing feelings in relationships, conveying a message or theme. Ideas for each piece seemed to surface as something caught my eye or sparked my creativity.

Sandy Kaplan. “White Swan – Black Swan.” 2019. Ceramic with Low-Fire Glazes, 24”x25”x12”. $2,000.

RP: What is the biggest point of inspiration for your artwork?
SK: Many famous artists have inspired me to create my sculptures like Picasso, Magritte, Kahlo, Matisse, Miro, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Alex Katz and Beatrice Wood as well as films like West Side Story with Leonard Bernstein conducting, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Black Swan, A Streetcar Named Desire, Casablanca and Gone With the Wind; authors, Ernest Hemingway and Eugene O’Neill and most recently, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and some figurative sculptures during the pandemic.

Sandy Kaplan. “Lichtenstein’s OHH…ALRIGHT…” 2021. Ceramic with Low-Fire Glazes, 16”x12”x13”. $1,500.

RP: How has your art evolved throughout the years and describe the different stages?
SK: For the first year or two, I was learning how to hand build with slabs, coils and molds. I was attracted to a raku fired vessel with women sculpted on the exterior in a gallery while vacationing and decided that I wanted to create narrative vessels with women in conversation, at tea and in friendship. My vessels evolved into various themes, many were couples dancing or engaging. Over time, my vessels became more sculptural and thematic.

In 2012, under the mentorship of Buzz Spector, who had selected my artwork for an exhibit that he curated at the Regional Arts Commission, I started creating sculptures for the interior of my vessels enhancing the dynamics of my pieces. At some point, I broke out of the vessel and created some freestanding sculptures. For the past five or six years, I have been sculpting iconic people in the narrative; artists and their work, authors and their relationships, musicians, film stars, etc.

Sandy Kaplan. “Wonder Woman and the Lasso of Truth.” 2020. Ceramic with Low-Fire Glazes, 21”x19”x12”. $1,500.

RP: Describe your artistic process/technique.
SK: I work with terra cotta clay, coil building and sculpting narrative vessels or figures. I use low-fire glazes in a painterly way to bring my figures to life. The process begins with building/sculpting, glazing, bisque firing, more glazing and a second firing in a low-fire electric kiln at Craft Alliance where I’ve been hand-building since 1989.

Sandy Kaplan. “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” 2019. Ceramic with Low-Fire Glazes, 19”x13 1/2”x19”. $2,500.

RP: What do you find most challenging/rewarding about the creative process?
SK: When I get an idea for a project, I need to think through all the necessary components of the piece. One challenge I had was how I was going to build the table for “A Moveable Feast.”  I was referred to an architectural graduate student at Sam Fox School of Art and Design at Washington University, to help design the table with exact measurements for the structure which I made from clay. This installation was my most challenging and most rewarding project. Another challenge that I faced was working from home during the pandemic instead of at Craft Alliance. I was still able to take my work there to be fired in their kilns since I don’t have my own kiln at home.

Sandy Kaplan. “RBG With Boxing Gloves.” 2021. Ceramic with Low-Fire Glazes, 17”x16”x13”. $1,500.

RP: What is it that you are most eager to convey through your art/ how do you want the viewer to receive or interpret or your art?
SK: My work is about people/relationships and the feelings they convey in my narrative sculptures. I want the viewers to feel the emotions of the people in my sculptures, whether iconic or not. In some of my art, I’ve expressed work by famous artists’ paintings, transforming them into the ceramic world. 

Sandy Kaplan at “SOFA Chicago 2018” with her work “Picasso and His Muses,” represented by Gallery Victor Armendariz.

Learn more about Sandy Kaplan: www.sandykaplansculptor.blogspot.com
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Roxanne Phillips is an artist and art educator based in St. Louis since 2001. She earned a MFA in Printmaking & Drawing from Washington University in St. Louis and BFA in Painting & Drawing from University of North Texas. Roxanne is an adjunct art instructor at Washington University in St. Louis and has worked with Art Saint Louis since 2017 as Administrative Assistant and Installer. From 2018-2020 she was Master Printer for Pele Prints. Her works have been featured in numerous exhibitions throughout the St. Louis region including at Art Saint Louis, Crossroads Art Studio & Gallery, and St. Louis Artists’ Guild. Her work is currently available at Union Studio in St. Louis. She has served as exhibit Juror for several regional exhibits & art fairs. Roxanne is past Board member of St. Louis Women’s Caucus for Art.