PROFILE OF ONE ARTIST

MITCHELL ANDREW WEBSTER

Born February 5, 1957 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Mitchell balances his time living and working with his life partner Janet MacKay from their studio in the beautiful lake side community of Sharbot Lake, Ontario, Canada and their home/studio in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's National Capital.

Mitchell has developed his art expertise over the past 13 years under the tutelage of many master craftsman.

While his forte and passion is sculpture Mitchell also paints in oils on canvas expressing his love of his physical environment in his landscapes and exploring the deeper mysteries of life in his surrealistic and impressionist and abstract canvases. When asked to differentiate between his painting and sculpture Mitchell responds that sculpture is emotional coming from the heart, while painting is more intilectual, comg from the mind.

He also creates functional works in many different media such as clay hand built pottery, pendants, vases etc., carved wood platters, mirror frames, and various other cabinetry items.Mitchell's primary discipline and passion however is sculpture. He originally started sculpting in clay, firing the pieces and finishing them in various acrylics, waxes, and metal pastes and patinas to be sold as one of a kind originals.

As he developed his art form further he found the clay to be too limiting for the complexity of his expression. Working in modelling clay over a structural armature allows Mitchell to expand his expression offering greater freedom in size and complexity. The finished pieces cast in bronze and patina offer an intrinsic sense of warmth, mass, weight, and timeless permanence.

Exploring the intricate complexities of our human relationships has inspired Mitchell to create sensual, thought provoking figurative works of art. He strives to to combine the yin and yang of being into his work. Balance and harmony are evident in hard geometric form contrasted by soft, sensual lines. The beauty of the human form is balanced with natural elements of the earth.

This body of work is intended to inspire us to look closely at all of our relationships in life, those with our parents our siblings, our peers and colleagues, our environments both natural and man made, our spouses and children, indeed with all of humanity but most importantly with the God of our own understanding and OURSELVES.

PROFILE OF THE MAN

Dreams

An Aquarian of the air and earth, of the year of the rooster, a 2911, to the cardinal direction of the north, of the butterfly clan, totem otter. A naturalist and a dreamer.

Mitchell was an artist at an early age, unable or more accurately unwilling to focus his young mind on anything but the mysteries of creation. He recalls his earliest and most persistant dreams were to fly, to be one with nature and to be an artist.

His early medium of choice would be crayon on wall, paper airplanes and chasing butterflies.

Forgotten dreams

By age 17 the seduction of the modern world of status quo and profit driven achievement had cast its spell. Dreams forgotten Mitchell would spend the following 20 or so years living the lies of his own creation. A prettier girl, a shinier car, a better job and bigger pay cheque had become the game of the day.

At age 20 after a 3 year tour of duty in the Canadian Armed Forces Mitchell moved to Alberta. He would spend the next 17 years of his life jumping from job to job. He worked on the oil rigs and in bars, in the Canadian arctic for 2 years as a power lineman, he worked as a carpenter, a salesman, and finally as a businas man.

A failed marriage and far too many career changes found him restless and unsatisfied with his life. A pilgrim searching for a sense of purpose, of self. At 38 a reborn hippie with only a backpack and a few bucks in his pockets Mitchell caught a plane home to live in a small cabin on Sharbot Lake, Ontario, Canada.

Coming Home

Alone with himself and nature Mitchell woke up. Remembering "himself", his dreams.

Taking occasional odd carpentry job he bought himself some oil paint and canvas and began teaching himself to paint, but the universe had more in store for Mitchell.

A small commission to paint a sky on a friends store ceiling opened a new door to him by way of a "chance" encounter.

One morning a women found him staring at "his sky" and changed his life. She would gift him with a block of clay some few days later in way of a thank you for some small kindness saying she thought he might be a sculptor. Attached to the clay with a lion sticker was a small note written on a piece of birch bark which read:

It was like coming home. He took the clay and created his first sculpture "Coming Home" which would be his gift back to her. Thank you Gloria, love and light all ways.

Living the Dream

Now, at age 52 Mitchell andrew webster lives in harmony with nature balancing his time between the cabin in Sharbot Lake and his home in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He has taken flying lessons and flies hang gliders. He communes with nature regularly and lives and works as a full time artist.