Meet Zef Rose, Pacific NW ArtistLiving by the ocean has been amazingly inspirational. I can hear the waves lapping the shore, and the rushing sound of the tides from my back yard, which is really a wooded dune. And I walk the beach behind my house nearly every day. No surprise that my fantasy driven work has turned to the sirens of the sea, the Mermaids and Sea Devas that exist in that veil-thin world between our waking life and our dreams.
I work with concrete. The stuff of sidewalks and skyscrapers, yes, but in my hands it becomes an ectoplasmic medium that takes on infinite living personalities.
The Mermaids and the Devas seem to swim in the garden, or rise out of the ground to shake the water from their beaded and dredded hair. Their glass scales and ornaments glow in the light
of the sun. Their eyes seem alive, truly human, with a propensity to look right into yours. Yet they never fail to express the true nature and texture of the material they are made from. And, as sculptures, they are just as durable.
I am in love with color. So I invented a special formula of concrete that is color-infused. I cast it in color, then I apply it in burnished layers onto the work, so it seems to glow from within with a rich pastel palette that takes its colors directly from the rocks and minerals of the earth.
The human form has been the primary focus of my work since I was a child. Early in my youth I developed a love/fear attraction to human eyes. There was a time when eyes would be the subject of my nightmares. I saw them everywhere -- in the ripples of water, in the knots of trees, in the swirls and soft wrinkles of fabrics -- everywhere. So I spent a lot of time drawing them. Soon they became my friends, and now I absolutely love to sculpt and paint eyes. Lips too are a favorite. So sensual and soft, to make them out of concrete is a feat of contradiction.
Combining the sensuality of human features with the glistening, floppy bodies of fish also serves to remind me of the unity of life on Earth. The theory of evolution notwithstanding, human life would be impossible without the life of the sea. We are all one. I try to remember this unity throughout all areas of my life. I believe that our growing consciousness of the human connection to all things will be the saving grace of our species and the key to our continued survival on this beautiful planet.
To view Zef's work, please go to: http://ladynin.com/zefrose1.html
