Artist Statement

I see powerful visual connections among the human form, the planet Earth, the solar system, the universe and life at the microscopic level.

The form of the human body becomes a metaphor for life along this spectrum of differing scales. For example, to me the egg can also be a planet or a seed or a cell, all four being basically the same functioning entity viewed from different vantage points.

The molecular level within the body mirrors the form of the universe beyond. I see the emotional and physical energy within a person as part of the same energy that keeps our planet circling the sun.

This enormous and interconnected story is the one I tell in my work and it is embodied by the metamorphic quality of my primary material, marble. 

Part of what makes marble a compelling medium for me is its history.

Hundreds of millions of years ago sea creatures lived, died and left their remains on the sea-bed. Over millions of years these deposits built up in thickness and weight, creating limestone. As the Earth's tectonic plates shifted, collided and lifted each other up, the world's mountain ranges were created. The immense pressure and heat from this movement metamorphosed the limestone into marble while raising it to the mountain peaks.

The Galisteo Basin, where I live and work, is an ancient sea-bed lifted, along with the Rocky Mountains, to over a mile above sea-level. Spanning the millennia, stone sculpture all over the world has been and will be eroded by wind and rain, gradually returning to the sea-bed. I believe my sculptures and their stories are in confluence with the natural life journey of marble.

As a medium, I'm enchanted by the inherent surprises I find when carving marble, some of which are: color, light, crystal structure and veining.

It delights me when the stone breaks and requires a change in course.

I appreciate the challenge of having to think inside-out, since the making of stone sculpture is a process of removal and discovery with no turning back. The physical process of carving also gives me an emotional connection to other artists throughout time.

The most powerful art for me has always involved the human figure. The stone sculpture of the Olmec, Aztec, Zapotec and Cambodian people as well as the Indian cave sculpture of Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh, are older examples of art that deeply move me. Other influential sculptors for me are Bernini, Michelangelo, Rodin, Camile Claudel, Giacometti, Henry Moore, Francisco Zuniga, Allan Houser and Novello Finotti. As my understanding of their work deepens, I realize that expanding my knowledge of human expression is limitless.

I can study the human form for the rest of my life and always have more to learn.

In my work I consider anatomy in all its reaches, from the structure and choreography of the bones and the miracle of movement and emotional expression to as far afield as the human genome and on through quantum physics and chaos theory as each relate to the human body.

From my perspective, this entire continuum of scale from infinitely large to the sub-atomic level, flows back into my sculpture. With this in mind, some of the things about the process of sculpture that delight me the most are: the body in motion; the exquisite balance between the expression of the face and the expression of the hands and, of great personal significance, the creative mobius-strip of my hand-of-flesh making the hand-of-stone.

Biography

Edward Fleming’s career as a sculptor has taken a curvilinear form that echoes his work in stone. It began with studying sculpture while attending Occidental College in Los Angeles, California from 1974 to 1976. Sculpture continued to be a vital interest, even after starting a 5-year BA program at Tulane University’s School of Architecture in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1976. While studying architecture, apprenticing with architectural firms and beginning a design practice, he continued to make sculpture, although his artistic attention began steadily moving into the realm of buildings.

In 1981 Fleming returned to his hometown of Washington, DC. He continued his apprentice work with architectural firms while studying for board exams as well as designing and building houses on his own. Even though at this point there was virtually no time for sculpture as art, he firmly believed that buildings, particularly houses, could be designed and built as sculpture-one-lives-in. He committed himself to this ideal at the inception of his professional practice in 1983. For the duration of his professional architectural career, he designed and built mostly residential projects, which are indeed sculptures that people live in.

In 1993 he started a program in stone sculpture at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington DC. His artistic response to stone was so powerful that within a short time he was juggling his full-time architecture practice with what became almost full-time stone carving. Discovering an intense desire to return to sculpture as art, he dedicated himself to exploration and learning as an artist.

The next few years were nomadic and highly educational. In the summer of 1994, he traveled to Pietrasanta, Italy for the first time, to study at the Pietrasanta Marble Carving Studio with Pasquale Martini and Cesare Riva, both of whom became his good friends. After that, he and his family moved from Washington, DC to Corrales, New Mexico for a year. Fleming devoted most of his time there to making stone sculpture and apprenticing part-time with sculptor Doug Hyde in Santa Fe. In the summer of 1995, Fleming and his family returned to Pietrasanta for a half-year where Fleming studied further at the same studio. After leaving Italy, he and his family spent six months living in Costa Rica, before finally returning to New Mexico in 1996. They moved to Galisteo, NM in the spring of 1997. This has become home-base; Fleming finished building his studio there in 2000 and now lives and works in Galisteo.

Since moving to Galisteo, Fleming has continued his formal art education. He has studied human anatomy at the Santa Fe Art Institute with painter Geoff Lawrence, portrait sculpture with sculptor Stephanie Huerta and drawing with painter Elias Rivera, who has become a close friend. Fleming has also consistently attended professional artists’ figure-drawing groups in Santa Fe. He returned to Pietrasanta for a half-year in 2001, sharing studio space and learning from sculptor Rino Gianinni, elder marble artisan Pellacane Blasco and sculptor Rinaldo Bovecchi. During that time Fleming also studied figure-drawing at the Academy of Fine Art in Carrara. In 2002, the last time Fleming lived in Pietrasanta, he worked in the studio of Giancarlo Buratti and shared space with sculptor Stanley Bleifeld who has since become a friend and mentor to Fleming. And since 2004, Fleming has been making his art adjacent to Galisteo sculptor John Massee’s studio.

In the beginning of 2001, Fleming made the decision to create sculpture full-time, drawing to a close his full-time architectural career and thus completing his circular path back to sculpture as art. The focus of his work is the human form; his artist’s statement gives an expanded understanding of Fleming’s relationship to his work.

Resume

Born

November 21, 1955, Washington, DC

Education

• 2010-present: John Sloan Drawing Grop, Santa Fe, NM: figure drawing
• 2009: Lucy Lyon Studio, Nambe, NM: figure modeling (clay)
• 2008: Roberta Remy Studio, Santa Fe,NM: figure drawing
• 2007-2008: Jo Basiste Studio, Santa Fe, NM: figure drawing
• 2003-2006: Elias Rivera Studio, Santa Fe, NM: figure drawing
• 2001-02: Academy of Fine Art, Carrera, Italy: figure drawing
• 1998-2001: Pink Church drawing goup, Santa Fe, NM: figure drawing
• 1998: Geoffrey Lawrence/Santa Fe Art Institute: anatomy
• 1994-95: Pietrasanta Marble Carving Studio, Pietrasanta, Italy: sculpture
• 1994: Doug Hyde studio, Santa Fe, NM: stone carving apprentice
• 1993-94: Corcoran School of Art, Washington, DC: stone sculpture;
• Pietrasanta Marble Carving Studio, Pietrasanta, Italy: sculpture
• 1976-81: Tulane University, New Orleans, LA: architecture degree
• 1974-76: Occidental College, Los Angeles: sculpture, architecture history

Career

• 2001-present: full-time stone sculptor.
• 1993: begin stone sculpture
• 1983-present: licensed architect
• 1981-2001: builder/contractor
• 1977: started architectural practice

Group Shows

• 2011: May-Open Hands Auction, Zane Bennett Galery, Santa Fe, NM; July: Heykel Kolonisi, Denizli, Turkey; August-Columbine Gallery, Loveland, CO.; September- Tucson Jewish Community Center Sculpture Garden, Tucson, AZ; October-Galisteo Studio Tour, Galisteo, NM.
• 2010: April- Sculptor's Dominion, San Antonio, TX.; August- National Sculpture Society awards exhibtion, Brookgreen Gardens, SC; Columbine Gallery, Loveland, CO; September- Pamukkale University, Denizli, Turkey; La Sala Gallery, Galisteo, NM; October- Sculpture at the RiverMarket, Little Rock, AR.; November- Tucson Jewish Community Center Exhibition, Tucson, AZ.
• 2009: May- Carol Robinson Gallery, New Orleans, LA; June- Evergreen Sculpture Walk, Evergreen, CO; October- Sculpture at the Rivermarket, Little Rock, Arkansas; November- Tucson Jewish Community Center Inaugural Sculpture Exhibition, Tucson, AZ.
• 2008: March- Adams State College Exhibition, Alamosa, CO; June- Evergreen Sculpture Walk, Evergreen, CO; October- Sculpture at the Rivermarket, Little Rock, Arkansas.
• 2007: January- National Sculpture Society awards exhibition, Brookgreen Gardens, SC; June- Evergreen Sculpture Walk, Evergreen, CO; June-Hudson Valley Art Association Annual Exhibition, New York, NY; June-New Mexico Sculptor's Guild Annual Exhibition, Santa Fe, NM; October- Sculpture at the RiverMarket, Little Rock, Arkansas.
• 2006: September- National Sculpture Society awards exhibition, Quick Center for the Arts, Fairfield, CN; October- Galisteo Studio Tour, Galisteo, NM.
• 2005: June- Evergreen Sculpture Walk, Evergreen, CO; June- Carol Robinson Gallery 25th anniversary exhibition, New Orleans, LA; September- Viselaya National Sculpture Competition, Concord, MA; October- Galisteo Studio Tour, Galisteo, NM; October- Carol Robinson Gallery virtual show; November- Justin Robert Galleries second anniversary exhibition, Santa Fe, NM.
• 2004: April- Sculptor's Dominion Invitational Show, San Antonio, TX; May- Hammer, Chisel and Stone Gallery, Morro Bay, CA; August- Sculpture in the Park, Loveland, CO; : September- National Sculpture Society awards exhibition, New York, NY; October- Galisteo Studio Tour, Galisteo, NM.
• 2003: August- Sculpture in the Park, Loveland, CO; September- Viselaya National Sculpture Competition, Concord, MA; September- Hammer, Chisel and Stone Gallery, Morro Bay, CA; September-Galisteo Fiesta art
• 2002: May- Wilds Gallery, Hikawagun Shimaneken, Japan; October- Corrales Visual Arts Council 14th annual fine arts exhibition.
• 2000: August- Gallery 944, Santa Fe, NM

Solo Shows

• 2005: August- Justin Roberts Galleries, Santa Fe, NM

Awards

• 2009: Sternberg Award of Excellence, Art for the Mountain Community, Evergreen, CO
• 2007: People's Choice Award and Brookgreen Medal, Brookgreen Gardens, National Sculpture Society 73rd Annual Exhibition
• 2006: Bronze Medal and Pietro and Alfrieda Montana Memorial Prize, National Sculpture Society 73rd Awards Exhibition.
• 2005: Prize for sensitivity of expression, Viselaya National Sculpture Competition; prize for communication of an important conceptual theme, Viselaya National Sculpture Competition.
• 2003: Best sculpture in show, Corrales Visual Arts Council
• 2002: Second in show, Corrales Visual Arts Council

Commissions

• Ramona Scholder, Galisteo, NM
• Eldorado Animal Clinic, Santa Fe, NM
• West Basin Preserve, Galisteo, NM
• Ice Family, Monahans, TX
• New Moon Overlook (four sculptures), Lamy, NM
• Nancy Helle, Galisteo, NM
• Southern Crescent (two sculptures), Lamy, NM
• Roger and Joanne Lameroux; Santa Fe, NM
• Trenza at the Galisteo Basin Preserve (two sculptures), Lamy, NM
• CT Whitehouse, Cedarburg, WI
• Steven Grabiel, Cedar Grove, NM
• Matthew Robertson, AIA, Denver, CO
• Raindrop Turkish House, Albuquerque, NM
   

Sympoisia:

• 2010: June/July- Pamukkale University First Art Colony, Denizli, Turkey
• 2011: June/July- Heykel Kolonisi 1., Denizli, Turkey
   

Teaching

• 2011: 2nd annual Galisteo Stone Sculpture Workshop: Organizer/Instructor; Private instruction at Edward Fleming studio, Galisteo, NM; Poeh Arts Center, Pojoaque Pueblo, NM: figurative carving workshop; Southwest Stone Carving Association workshop, Hobbs, NM
• 2010: Galisteo Stone Sculpture Workshop: Organizer/Instructor; Private instruction at Edward Fleming studio, Galisteo, NM
• 2009: Instutute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM: Portrait carving workshops; Poeh Arts Center, Pojoaque Pueblo, NM(April and June): Portrait carving workshop
• 2008: Monte del sol Charter School, Santa Fe, NM: Mentoring student in stone carving; Poeh Arts Center, Pojoaque Pueble, NM: Portrait carving workshop; Southwest Stone Carving Symposium, Jemez Springs, NM: Instructor
• 2007: Southwest Stone Carving Symposium, Jemez Springs, NM: Guest Artist Instructor

Gallery Representation

• Columbine Gallery, Loveland, CO
• Carol Robinson Gallery, New Orleans, LA
• Justin Roberts Galleries, Santa Fe, NM

Professional Associations

• National Sculpture Society
• National Sculptors' Guild
• New Mexico Sculptors' Guild
• Galisteo Art Association
• Southwest Stone Carving Association (Board Member)