Mike Adams

“Weia! Waga! and Dowager” – mixed media

We tend to talk today about our separation from nature. Indeed, it seems to be the case that we see nature as literally outside ourselves: the out-of-doors. We damage the environment without regard for the fact that we are in nature, destroying the very earth of which we are an integral part”like setting fire to a house in which we still want to live. Even very early in the 19th Century, but really before the Industrial Revolution affected Germany, Friedrich Schelling (1775-1854) wrote about nature as having two aspects: unconscious forces, what we would call the natural world, and consciousness–including our own sentience–still part of the natural world, but enabling us to be (or to think we are) autonomous. Perhaps this seeming autonomy, our ability to think and act, makes us feel that we are beyond unconscious nature, when we are merely an extension of it.

“Leibniz” – ceramic and wood

My own sculpture is an exploration of the balance between what I would have previously called the natural world and the man-made world, but there is an inherent opposition. Instead,  like to follow Schellings lead and project ourselves within a unity of nature of which we are part. Obviously this does not solve the obvious problem of the divide in which we often find ourselves as humans: seemingly opposed to everything else in the world (and subsequently alienated).

Hjortspring Boat” – mixed media

Yet the connection we have with art is an example of how we actively engage in a positive way with our world. My work is ultimately optimistic in that it offers a kind of harmony. I juxtapose incongruous elements, not necessarily to cause a clash, but to create something mythic, something that exists outside of time and the normal rules. A work of art ought to be a bit strange, that place in the world where something new happens.

detail – “Hjortspring Boat”

Mike Adams
Rama House
Painted Stoneware
6 high x 6 wide x 6 deep
$395
Mike Adams
Heart House
Painted Stoneware
6.25 high x 6 wide x 6 deep
$395
Mike Adams
Maisons à l’Estaque
Painted Stoneware
5.5 high x 5 wide x 5 deep
$350 SOLD
Mike Adams
Life on a Small Planet
Painted Stoneware
5 high x 5 wide x 4.5 deep
$350

View Page ….Mike’s series of “Flower” Paintings

Mike Adams
Absent Deity
Painted Stoneware
3-3/4 high x 3-3/4 wide x 3 deep
$395

As a fine artist, visual spontaneity and narrative are very important to me. Most of my imagery is influenced by the unseen world around me, dream imagery, and natural as well as architectural forms. I decided early on, that I did not want my art to be a noun. I like to create visual metaphors and maybe even a dangling participle or two! I work with a variety of materials, including water media, torn paper collage, and found object assemblages from recycled treasures. 

Face Fragment I
Stoneware with Engobe
3.5 x 3 x 1.25
$55
Face Fragment II
Stoneware with Engobe
3.75 x 3.75 x 1.25
$55
Face Fragment III
Stoneware with Engobe
4 x 3,25 x 1.25
$55
Mountain Home
Mixed Media
12 x 7.5 x 7.5
$95
Eternal Flame III
Cast Bronze
2.25 x 9 x 8.25
$195