Christian Hansen

Bio:

Creating art has always felt very natural for me.  I was born in Peru and as a child I remember always sketching and making little drawings and even making simple three dimensional pieces from found scraps. My artistic perspective comes from the visual experiences I have had in life and from two years of landscape architecture training at the University of Massachusetts. Since moving to North Carolina from Boston, MA nine years ago I have been learning about sculpting using metal working techniques and look to continuing that development.

I am currently exploring what is possible with metals both through casting and welding methods and look forward to incorporating other media in my art as well.

Artist Statement:

I make art because I think it is a language that is suppressed in our modern world.  As a society we seem to create things that are very well defined, precise, practical and functional.  In that I think something gets lost, I feel that sculpture can communicate in this missing language and make the viewer think a bit differently, even if just for a short time.

I endeavor to create art that is as simple as possible while still conveying the essence of the inspiration.  The inspiration for my work comes from many sources, however I am drawn to compelling shapes or groupings of shapes, which tend to originate from designs found in the natural world. Additionally the materials I work with have a big influence on the idea, many times the material seems to me to be destined for a certain design.

Currently I am working mostly in metal and am looking execute some larger scale abstract designs I have created both through casting in bronze and sheet metal construction. I want to create pieces that can be displayed in sculpture gardens.  I love nature and being able to display and enjoy art outdoors I think is fantastic.  The permanency of metal makes it well suited for outdoor display and I feel it really adds to the impact of the sculpture.