|
The Artist - Woodrow Nash
By Fletcher Word
Sojourner’s Truth Editor
Woodrow Nash’s sculptures,
as noted on his website, “transmit human delicacies and
inner harmony.” Incorporating a variety of styles and
techniques, in his studio in Akron, Nash utilizes stoneware,
earthenware, terracotta or porcelain which is fired
electronically, pit fired or via a “raku” effect creating an
“African Nouveau” trademark all his own.
His images are African,
the concept of 15th century Benin, using the
slender proportions and undulating lines of 18th
century French Art Nouveau.
Nash was displaying his
artwork during the annual Jazz Festival in New Orleans about
a decade ago when he was approached by a hale and hearty
local lawyer, John Cummings – a stranger at the time – who
engaged him in what Nash felt was an all-too-familiar soul
handshake.
The stranger proceeded to
tell Nash in some detail about a plantation he and his
family had just purchased and the big plans he had for it.
As he admired and praised Nash’s work, Cummings told the
artist that his work could be an integral part of the
project. The artist viewed the stranger with more than a bit
of skepticism but, then again, before he left, Cummings did
purchase a pretty expensive sculpture from Nash.
Over time, Nash did his
research and discovered that Cummings was the real deal – a
successful attorney with a boatload of money and the
wherewithal to do everything he said he wanted to do with
the recently purchased Whitney Plantation.
Nash created his children
sculptures in his Akron studio and trucked them down to New
Orleans countless times over the next few years in time for
the museum opening in 2014. Within the last year, the
bronzed heads of the 1811 rebels have been added to the
plantation’s memorials.
|
