The Genesis Series welded steel sculptures, 23 works in all, were created in the late 1970s. At the time I was a professor of art at Biola University, La Mirada, California.
As I worked on each piece I exercised a discipline of redirecting my “self talk” to a coversation with God about the shapes and forms I was working on at the moment, as well as about aesthetics and creativity and his creation in particular. Instead of thinking to myself about a shape, a flow, a balance of positive and negative space (the cognitive, intellectual creating process) I posed my thoughts as questions to God as if he were really there AND interested in participating. It was a joy to create these works with God guiding my thoughts and to realize in the end that these sculptures were a joint effort. We made them together.
The finished works in the Genesis Series were very rewarding to me, of course. But even more exciting were the thoughts that came into my head about aesthetics, creativity and creation. The following is a thumbnail of some of them.
As I worked, I became more aware of the homogeny of all aspects of creation, finding my thoughts ranging into areas of science as well as aesthetics.
The dynamics of positive and negative space - mass and non-mass - were of interest to me. In thinking of mass, one generally thinks of solidity. Yet solidity, in fact, is entirely relative. Structures at an atomic level contain vast spaces not visible yet truly there. Density of mass, then, is a relative consideration, and conceptually, space or non-mass becomes, aesthetically speaking, a definite factor ordering form. Non-mass is a great but unobserved reality. The balance between positive and negative space is inseparable. One defines the other. This is also true of man - the temporal and spiritual being. There is a hint that mass is temporary, non-mass eternal.
The remarkable diversity and variety employed by the Creator notwithstanding, ordering of form or mass seems to be in logical, structural interdependent sequences whether organic or inorganic. Complex, repetitive, interlocking structures occur in creation on the minute level of essence, growing, compounding to final expression in forms which may relate to or be diverse visually from their beginnings; repetition so vast as to repeat itself from atom to universe with infinite diversity and variety between; interlocking and interdependent structurally and visually; perfect order, masterful in design.
An then the concept of motion - relative also - and always present in material experience. Mass is "solid" or static only when viewed from the human perspective. On the inside there is great motion and life that repeats itself in the universe. The human perspective to these facts is in the intermediate realm. Man in the middle of creation - half way between atom and universe - optimally experiencing that which both have to offer.
Man, too, both temporal (massive) and spiritual (non-massive) adds another dimension to the picture. The structure, order and diversity of mass and form balanced with the reflection of the creating being, abstractly images the Designer Creator Spirit God.
The forms of the Genesis Series clearly relate to nature. In a sense they are "from" nature in their structural approach. In another sense they are "to" nature. They begin with non-natural materials and techniques and end as "organic" yet non-objective shapes. (No object is specifically used as "inspiration" for their forms.) Really, my work is "about" nature: the concepts of creation with an effort to use these concepts in the forming of new objects. The result is very rewarding to me in that "natural" but un-named forms emerge. Perhaps this is the reason people seem to "see things" in these pieces.
These are the main concepts that developed during the Genesis Series. The thoughts developed with the forms - with each piece. I did not use my work to illustrate ideas. The thoughts came as I worked. The activity fed me, one thought building on the last, orderly, sequentially, unity continuing as prayer became art and I in my creativity imaged the creativity of God.
Grant R Logan
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