Mythological images of the master.

Forest Rogers was born in 1961 into a creative family of artists. The sculptor recalls how, as a child, her mother drew paper dolls-trolls, nymphs and alien creatures for her. The girl grew up in a creative environment full of muses and fabulous secrets.

Talking about his grandmother's house “which looked like a time machine,” Forest recalls that his favorite attraction was a bookcase filled with volumes of illustrations by Rackham, Nielsen, and Dulac.

“I sat on the floor for hours and studied these books. It seems to me that now I am turning to the Universe in search of my ideas, just as I was then looking for treasures in this house. "

Baba Yaga and Vasilisa

Rogers studied Stage and Costume Design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

The most exciting project I worked on with my mother was painting the dome of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Resurrection in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. We painted a clear field of the dome - 60 feet across. My mother prepared the sketches, I painted the faces of the Virgin Mary and the Angels

Yuki Onna

The path to the current mythological work has turned out to be difficult.

During her studies, Forest worked with paleontologists at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. For 25 years, she has been creating dinosaur sculptures. Later, a variety of commercial projects were added: squid-shaped erasers, silver napkin rings decorated with parrots, whale models for the aquarium, and many others.

Subsequently, after studying the work of other sculptors and puppeteers, Rogers mastered mixed media techniques. Her favourite material is polymer clay.

Octopus

Nymph

When you look at the artist's work, you get the feeling that they are emitting an inner glow. The same effect comes from the sculptures of the Renaissance, and Antique times. The stone seemed to glow from the inside with a warm light.

The artist shares his thoughts:

"When I do creative work, I realise: 'This is Love'.

"We take risks by creating our work and putting it on public display. In this way, we become vulnerable. We can be hurt by an awkward stare, by someone else's personal opinion. We throw ourselves into this abyss over and over again because it's important, because we can't live without it."

"To do our job well and freely, we have to be willing to look silly when reaching out, to risk getting slapped back. We put our beating heart on a plate and say, "Look!"

"Art going out into the world is a dance for two. The author and the viewer come together, for a moment, in the language of a particular thought. You are not alone, because the viewer displays echoes of your ideas and images".

“Art can penetrate external barriers and speak directly to human consciousness. It can penetrate at a very deep level, bypassing the separation (even a hundred years old) and reminding us of our common Life. "

"For me, art is about giving up the closed self for something bigger. I strive to make myself a transparent lens for the Idea. This is especially true for subjects based on myths or legends. When I let them "speak", they become mine, filtered through my soul.

This is the paradox: the more faithful you are to your unique vision, the more likely you are to be understood by others. "

Sea Horse

"Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind," writes Shakespeare. This is also the case with the creation and reception of art. It is intertwined with our memories, our pain, our personal and universal history, our hopes, our goals and our earliest perceptions of the world.

Horror stories

Madam shrimp

Creature from the Garden of Night

The work of the master can be seen:

• Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, PA
• Reed & Barton Silversmiths, Taunton, Massachusetts
• Rudolph N. Ron Liturgical Art, Pittsburgh, PA
• Safari, LTD., Miami, Florida
• Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey, California
• National Aquarium, Baltimore, Maryland

Photos are taken from open sources on the Internet.

With love and respect, Tatiana Kalinina 

Instagram @tatakalinyshka