Wayne Hammer | Metalsmith
Published: March 1, 2011
The metal works of Wayne Hammer, on display through March 17 at the Hockaday Museum of Art in Kalispell, are born of a combined interest in both the mechanical and natural world. The range of subject material varies from a small sculpture of a railroad trestle to more classical, wearable gold jewelry based upon floral motifs.
Common to all pieces is an attention to detailed craftsmanship. While it’s apparent that spontaneity propels a storytelling aspect to his work, his creations also reveal that metal is largely a slow-moving, painstakingly deliberate media. Yet it also affords a detailed modeling of imagined, conceived and contrived scenarios.
The influence of nature in his work is derived from living in rural settings throughout his life. The artist grew up in Jackson Hole, WY, upstate New York, and Kailspell, MT.
He first encountered metalsmithing during his studies with Richard Helzer at Montana State University in Bozeman. He went on receive a master of fine arts in metals from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. Among the artists influential to Hammer’s work are Richard Mawdsley and Bruce Metcalf.
A viewer is drawn into another “world” through his small-scale or miniature works, which afford opportunities to experience imaginations, daydreams and humor encased in a firm, metallic media – a sort of “alchemic imagination.”
