By Tabitha Redder/managing editor
Lost and found finds new meaning in the second art exhibition on NW Campus this semester.
Students can see Texas A&M-Corpus Christi art professor Greg Reuter’s Bronze Sculptures collection on display when they visit the WFAB Lakeview Gallery.
“It’s about collecting different things on the beaches on the Gulf Coast,” Reuter said. “I collect different textures from the sand, and then I go ahead and make molds off those textures, and then I do the lost-wax casting off them.”
Reuter looks for deer, coyote and crab tracks, snake trails and other interesting patterns in the sand in addition to found objects like fish skeletons to make molds with.
“They can drive on the beach in south Texas. I find that interesting too,” he said. “The tire tracks make reference to man’s mark on the beach.”
A number of different art classes attended Reuter’s reception Oct. 6 where he spoke about the process of making his artwork and demonstrated how he converts a plaster piece into a bronze one and how he creates some of his forms in a workshop.
“The physical act of making and collecting takes days, and then the process of bronze casting takes months, so it’s not a real spontaneous material,” he said.
Reuter has been creating pieces for the Bronze Sculptures collection since 2002 with the most recent ones made this year.
While sculpture displays aren’t a foreign concept to the Lakeview Gallery, Bronze Sculptures differs from past exhibitions.
“We’ve never had a bronze show before,” exhibit curator Fred Spaulding said. “We cast bronze at NW Campus in our sculpture class, so this is kind of a way to get that technique out in everybody’s eye so they can see what’s going on.”
Reuter said he plans to keep adding to the collection.
“It will probably take a different slant every now and again, but I’m interested in recording our history and what we leave behind,” he said.
Art appreciation student Katrina Hoss was intrigued with Reuter’s “Sand House” piece.
“I like it because it has four distinct sides that all have a very different texture and pattern on them. They all create or evoke a different kind of feeling,” she said. “This one is a footprint in the sand. It seems more peaceful like a scene on the beach. This one is kind of rough — it looks like coal. I like the change in perspective each time.”
Reuter hopes people walk through the gallery like he walks along the beach.
“So you could say basically I brought the coast up to Fort Worth,” he said.
