Details
Sculpture Jam (2003) is a piece about the artist’s process—drawing monumental forms from massive redwood with a chainsaw and elegantly integrating copper craftsmanship. The sculpture’s organic, dynamic shapes breathe new life into ancient wood, grounding us in the present while connecting us to our natural environment and to our local and global communities, and offering a sense of hope for a resilient future. Bruce Johnson’s work at large drew inspiration from the physical presence of Stonehenge, the elegant craft and exquisite detail of Japanese Shinto shrines, and other sacred architectures.
Artist Bruce Johnson grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and studied art at the University of California, Davis in the 1960s. By the early 1970s, he moved to rural Sonoma County, where he began making sculpture inside a barn and outdoors on a meadow. On that coastal ridge, he started a family and dedicated himself to large-scale abstract sculpture for nearly fifty years, as well as designing and creating unique buildings, gardens, doors, gates, lanterns, playgrounds, furniture, and fountains.
Despite his rural location, Johnson achieved international recognition, with large-scale sculptures permanently placed in Italy, Spain, and Taiwan, as well as in many private and public collections across the United States.
This project is presented by the City of San Luis Obispo’s Public Art Program.
