Justin Poole

"As a graduate student at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, I experimented with different ways of expressing the human form," writes Justin Poole, an emerging sculptor already recognized for his extraordinary talents and perceptions. "Determined to invigorate the figure in sculpture," he continues, "I began to develop my own ways of expression. I reinvented the figure through distortions, exaggeration, clarification, while at the same time maintaining a clear sense of anatomical structure. Anatomy in sculpture, I believe, is analogous to rhythm in a piece of music in the sense that it is the framework that everything else rides on. I believe that the artists' subjectivity is crucial to the success of any artwork. The subjective experience must however be guided or tempered with the objective. It is the play of the factual (objective) and the fictional (subjective) that drive me, and informs my work (sic)."

Some artists speak well of their intentions, and Justin Poole is one of those. He continues, "Currently the work that is inspiriting me has been changing. I am looking less at Baroque and Romantic periods and more at Renaissance and Classical Grecian eras. I think that after exploring the hot, kinetic and potential energy of the former, I want to cool down my work with the more composed internalized presence of the latter. I am beginning to view the body less as a vehicle for a narrative (body + narrative) and more as the body becoming the narrative (body - narrative). The difference in the approach to working that I explore above might simply be one of splitting hairs. The main thrust and meaning of my work will remain the same. All the sculpture that I have made, and intend to continue making, deals with the glory of the body. I try to find that which is magical about the body whether it be young or old, weak or strong."