Sculptures
Paulo Dufour's art is part of his world. Trees, plants, animals and shadows merge with allegorical themes that find their new interpretation as myth in his life and art.
The continuity in his work is sometimes difficult to see when viewed apart, but come together in the series which he works.
Shadow Work, Mental Universe, Sacred Geometry, Vessica Meditations, Tides of Desire are some of the show titles in his recent years efforts.
Currently he is producing work which offers a relationship of his shadow cast onto metaphysical landscapes.
Glass is fascinating. It’s a medium you can look at and look through, often at the same time. Doing so prompts a kind of mental shift of your attention or your focus. That shift and the ability to make layers of transparency and meaning on the different layers is what attracts me.” -Paulo Dufour
My interest in sculpture is rooted in the local clay dug from the bayous close to my home in Louisiana. It was there that I began my early investigations of form using driftwood found on the sandy banks of the Mississippi River levee and maquette on a small scale for larger constructions. Later, I crafted constructions using copper, steel, and clay combined with glass in undergraduate courses at LSU.
As a graduate student at California College of Arts and Crafts my work focused on wall hung constructions of steel and sandblasted sheet glass. There I also moved into hot glass, which I find is an excellent material for sculpture. Hot glass soon consumed the bulk of my creative hours.
I was fascinated and dove into experimentations with glass fusing, glass slumping in a kiln, casting with molten glass in molds, neon assemblages, and sheet glass combined with metal to make minimalist sculptures.
That interest continues to this day. My current sculpture is a combination of forged and stock iron combined with glass elements. Iron, like glass, is an elemental material I can fashion with heat, either in the forge, with a torch, or both.
I am drawn to the physical richness of iron and I use many heat treating techniques and patinas to infuse color into the surface of the metal. These work well in combination with the glass, which is also treated with color and sculpted both at the furnace and at my studio with specialized grinding and polishing equipment.
The themes of my work vary. Much of it is autobiographical, reflecting my response to the world and events around me. Some themes are related to dreams, memories, events and allegories that attract my interest.
Please find below works I currently have available for purchase. If you are interested in discussing or hearing more details about any of the pieces, or perhaps a commission project, please contact me at anytime via email or phone.
