Arts
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July 20 – August 2, 2013
63
Local artists get rare opportunity BY TERI CARNICELLI
Imagine strolling through a breathtaking forested area that opens to a massive sandstone bluff reaching 200 feet above the valley floor. The pathway is not only dotted with nature’s beauty, but with manmade, astonishing creations as well. Visitors to the El Morro National Monument in Ramah, NM will encounter just such an experience due in large part
to the outdoor sculptures created by artists John Gleason and Jacque Keller of Quantum Art Inc. (QAI) in Chandler. Gleason and Keller are nationally known artists who work out of Gleason’s home studio in Chandler. They formed QAI in 1999 in an effort to promote their art and have since grown their fine art business into a thriving studio-gallery to serve the needs of interior designers, architects,
LANDSCAPE: Artists John Gleason and Jacque Keller of Chandler-based Quantum Art Inc., recently had four of their original “reclaimed” sculptures installed in the forested area around the El Morro National Monument in Ramah, NM. Photo courtesy of Quantum Art Inc.
corporations and private buyers. “Oftentimes I’ll start a piece, put together some metal and glass and then hand it off to Jacque and say ‘what can you do with it?’” Gleason says. “She’ll add her own funkiness to the pieces, and then at some point we call it and say, ‘OK, it’s done.’ I trust her completely. It’s a great partnership.” Two years ago, Gleason and Keller held a two-person show in New Mexico at the invitation of the El Morro Area Arts Council. At the time, Gleason and a member of the council got to talking, and “he suggested that I create a sculpture in the park out of anything I could find on the land,” Gleason recalls. The council had been toying with the idea of creating a sculpture garden in the park area. The sculpture Gleason created was made of sticks, stones and natural fibers. “It was a total thrill,” he says. When the invite came to continue the work he started two years previously, Gleason was ecstatic. He and his studio partner, Keller, sat down and sketched out a few designs and then went to work. “We have to work within certain parameters; the material has to be essentially ‘found’ or ‘reclaimed’,” Gleason explains. One of their first stops was Scrap Metal Exchange (SMC) in Tempe. After explaining what they were doing, the manager was so impressed that he invited them to take whatever they needed at no charge. “It meant that we could do this project
METAL MONUMENT: Donated scrap metal from Scrap Metal Exchange in Tempe was used to create this 14-foot outdoor sculpture, “Landscape Reframed,” by John Gleason and Jacque Keller of Quantum Art Inc. in Chandler. The sculpture sits in the forested area around the El Morro National Monument in Ramah, NM. Photo courtesy of Quantum Art Inc.
without it costing us thousands of dollars, and we were so grateful for his generosity,” Gleason says. Keller adds, “SMC owners are very supportive of artists and creative thinkers. They also offer discounts to all Arizona State University sculpture and art students. We thank them so much for their enthusiasm, generosity and support of independent artists.” SEE ARTIST PAGE 64
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