RUSSELL WHITING

SCULPTOR

“As an artist I want to make sculpture that exhibits the skills and techniques that I have developed as a metal worker over the last 30 years. My method of working steel is uniquely a product of my involvement and experience’s in the oil and ship building industry of Louisiana.”

Whiting developed a technique of carving steel that employs the use of the oxy-acetylene torch - which produces complex surfaces that are fascinating and heavily textured. The subject matter often become secondary to the well-informed viewer in comparison to the actual texture and dynamic nature of the piece. His work exhibits the strength of steel as a sculptural medium. “By carving the steel I am free from the found object or mill shaped objects that are so often found in contemporary steel sculpture.”