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For thousands of years the dominant and form in Western sculpture was the human figure. Generally nude and idealized into impossible proportions, statuary stood for millennia as models for human aspiration often unattainable. Around the turn of the past century the figure was thrown off the pedestal, shattered, disassembled into nothingness and periodically excoriated from the public realm by any number of fundamentalist scolds. I have long suspected that this state of affairs is an aberration, partly revolutionary, partly reactionary, a response to the disjoint of the figural tradition to the horrors and alienation of the 20th Century.
And yet, has the baby not been thrown out with the bathwater? After years of being ignored, even reviled in art, commodified for porn or fashion, rendered like meat in a butcher shop and a battlefield in gender and identity movements, the human figure may have finally become so overburdened with meaning, so absolutely static with associations, that it has finally become neutral. It can at last simply be a human body. Aware of all its quirks and contradicions, questioning and in some way responsible for its own fate in the world. It may now be possible, finally, to take up the bigger question, that most ancient question of artists. How is it that this recalcitrant mass of meat and icky fluid also most closely resembles the divine?

In recent years, I've developed a technique for casting puzzles which turns these inexpensive, temporal items into long-lasting, virtually indestructible works of art. From the beginning I was fascinated with the concept of taking something that is traditionally flat and making it three dimensional, taking something inexpensive and making it something of value, and taking something that falls apart easily and turning it into something of permanence.
The use of playing cards and puzzles represent the transient, temporal nature of our existence while the use of child-like rendering and precious metals underscores a sense of vulnerability and fate—and how dear, however imperfect, our experiences are in this life.

Bonnie Meltzer was born with a crochet hook in one hand and a purple crayon in the other and has added art materials to her tool box ever since. In the 1970’s she began to crochet electronics wire. At the same surplus store that she discovered magnet wire, beautiful, colorful and very flexible wire, she found other computer thing-a-ma-bobs. Their intrinsic beauty forced their way into her work. Since that time she has been noted for her use of found objects. Real working computers are part of her tool box, too. Heat transferred photographic images are often elements of the sculptures. In work that has so many disparate elements; paint, found objects, and digital photography--crochet links, excuse the pun, it all together visually and sometimes even structurally.

"Hello" was created for Pavelcomm, a telephone systems and networking company, in a project called "Corporate Waste Into Art" sponsored by Cracked Pots and NW Business for Culture and the Arts. It is in the lobby of Pavelcomm in NW Portland.

This fractal inspired console table is six feet wide and 28 inches deep. It was carved out of a single piece of thick glass. The front edge is chiseled and then deeply etched with a design that emulates the natural way the ends of glaciers crack and then fall into the ocean. It floats on two custom stainless steel L brackets and is edge illuminated with a custom LED configuration.

The Column behind it is 10 feet tall and has silvery moss green colors on the back that reflect and refract ambient room light. The client couldn't have a fireplace in her loft on the 12th floor of The Elizabeth building in the Pearl, so we created a vertical, floating column of candlelight. The thick glass shelves are clear glued to the face of the glass and hold transparent glass candles. The area just behind each flame is silver leafed to create a warm glow from the flickering candlelight.

I live on an old farm that is cluttered with machine parts, tools and other mysterious artifacts found in old out buildings, barns and even buried in the ground. These objects seem to have a life force of their own. Some may see all this as a heap of scrap metal. I see it as art waiting to happen. Sculpture is a language and all these strange fragments of mankind's ingenuity are a kind of lexicon for that abstract, poetic and even musical expression.

I have always been infatuated with the human face. I often think that I will someday run out of fascinating people to sculpt, but it hasn’t happened yet. We are all so diverse and intriguing, and we cannot resist the attraction of our own species, whether beautiful or grotesque. We strive to be unique and we strive to fit in…we are complicated.

Growing up I spent the majority of my free time outdoors, primarily in the mountains of Washington and Idaho. Consequently that is where I am most comfortable and draw my biggest inspiration.
I started drawing and carving wood as a child and in 1975 learned to weld as a means of paying the bills. In the early 1990’s all paths met, resulting in a new found passion for everything. Since that time I’ve been creating three dimensional sculptures in carbon and stainless steel, copper, brass and aluminum.
My work started mainly as animals, birds, and fish, but has grown from structural, functional, and decorative sculpture to human and mythological figures. Lately I’ve been working on pieces that deal with the subject of social consciousness particularly of man and nature and the responsibilities we all share. My desire is that people who view my work will take away a greater feeling of connection with the natural world and a sense of hope for the future

 I want people to see the organic shapes I see in a piece of metal, instead of something angular and rigid. Curling and rounding soften hard edges. Warm tones emerge through heat and chemical processes as each piece takes on a character of its own.