(Breezy Anderson next to her sculpture Unrestrained Force)
Breezy Anderson’s new sculpture, Unrestrained Force, perfectly captures her love of metal sculpture and the human form. Recently installed in downtown Lake Oswego as part of the rotating collection of the Gallery Without Walls, it will be on display through August 2021.
Gallery Without Walls is Lake Oswego’s signature public art program. It began in the late 1990s and currently includes nearly 80 sculptures thoughtfully displayed throughout the community with many of them in the downtown area. The permanent sculptures have been purchased and donated by residents or neighborhoods, or chosen in an annual community vote to be purchased by the city for the collection. The source and guardian of Gallery Without Walls and multiple other public art projects and programs is the Arts Council of Lake Oswego. Contracting with the City of Lake Oswego to administer the public art program, the Arts Council works to ensure the arts are an integral part of life in our community.
Breezy started her vocation as a full-time Oregon based artist in 2012. Since that time, she has created multiple stunning metal sculptures that are showcased publicly in outdoor spaces. Her work is widely collected both nationally, and internationally. She is deeply committed to Public Art because “it inspires us to dream and delve into unknown spaces.” How amazing we get to do this right here at home in Lake Oswego.
Her passion for metal work began seven years ago when she was given an old MIG welder and few scraps of iron. As she says, “watching the molten puddle form in each weld was a hypnotic experience for me. All the sounds, the sparks, the heat and the smell of the metalworking was inspiring.” She set herself on a treasure hunt for any scraps of iron she could find, and then began creating. As she says, what she first created were not works of art at the time. She added some new tools, a couple of angle grinders, and a chop saw. As she mastered her tools and materials her projects evolved into more sculptural work. “Many projects at first seem impossible, and then they seem improbable. With dedication, those same projects soon become inevitable.” As she says, “The reason I do what I do is because I can’t not.”
She approaches her work with an attitude of discovery. She does not use casting or molding or other standardized methods in metal sculpture. Instead, all of the work is constructed from iron, steel and stainless-steel using welding, forging, and fabricating techniques. The life size figures that she creates are constructed free hand by meticulously welding thousands of round stock pieces together to form the structure, or what Breezy calls “the skeleton.” Her concept is in her head, not drawn out. She begins with the feet and works her way up. She often uses her own hands or feet as a visual sketch.
Perhaps the hardest part of the process is recognizing when it is done. For Breezy, her pieces are complete “when the visual dialogue has reached a conclusion, A successful sculpture needs no explanation or clarification. The image has immediate impact.”
Breezy’s newest sculpture enriches her beautiful body of work with its exquisite attention to detail, and gorgeous texture and form. Each piece inspires or haunts its viewer as it creates its own dialogue with us. Come dream and delve as you explore Gallery Without Walls, especially Breezy’s “Unrestrained Force.”
Join the Arts Council of Lake Oswego September 14th at Sundeleaf Plaza in Lake Oswego from 3 to 5 p.m. for the Gallery Without Walls Celebration with family-friendly activities including an artmaking area for adults and kids, docent-led tours, artist talks, fun snacks, and a drawing rally featuring regional and local artists.