Sculptor/Professor Eric Lintala Gives Rock Art Lecture
Published on Monday, July 26, 2010
Chatham, Massachusetts (July 26, 2010) -- Long before people developed a written language, they learned how to communicate or record through pictures. Sheltered in caves or under vast cliffs, these im- ages of human kind, animals, and nature were inscribed, pecked and painted onto stone.
UMass Dartmouth Professor Eric Lintala has traveled extensively throughout the United States recording and researching pre-historic Rock Art, petroglyphs and pictographs, which has had a profound influence on his work. Concentrating his research in the southwest, he made a major discovery in 1994 of a rock art panel not yet recorded, located in Salt Creek Canyon, south central Utah. Lintala will talk about his im- portant discovery and the process by which this rock art inspires his work at 483 Main Street in the gar- den of the Narrowland Gallery this Friday, July 30th at 8:00pm.
“The full meaning of these symbols left on stone will most likely elude us forever,” says Lintala twirling his handlebar moustache. “In fact, much about the early Native Americans who made them, their knowledge, is lost to the ages entirely.”
The challenge before Professor Lintala is to carry on, to reinvestigate, to renew this tradition of communi- cation and through the visual interpretations in his carvings and sculptures. “In some way, I hope their spirits can live on. It is the unknown, to try to understand what was, in relation to what is now and yet to come, that fascinates me.”
Each of his sculptures tells a story. They tell of the experiences and adventures he encountered while searching for rock art in the backcountry of the southwest. Some objects, such as the cast bronze “Winged Shaman” look like artifact themselves, taking on the suggested role of weapon, tool or sacred relic.
“Ericʼs imagery is unual in that itʼs a sensual experience. Theyʼre raised to create a strong visual contrast of surface and to encourage viewers to interact with each piece by reading their surfaces and shapes through the sense of touch,” says Narrowland Gallery co-owner Richard Koury.
Many of Lintalaʼs Earthy bronze sculptures are hand-sized, however he also works on a large scale as well. Heʼs been commissioned for many large public art installations. He designed the dramatic image of a hand reaching from a pillar of granite for The Holocaust Memorial in Buttonwood Park in New Bedford. The sculpture, cast at a Rhode Island Foundry, was the dream of Abraham Landau, a Holocaust survivor who survived 13 concentration and labor camps during World War II. Mr. Landau, who died in 200, had been a resident of New Bedford, with his wife, Frieda, and family, since 1950. It was cast at a Rhode Is- land Foundry.
“Eric was my art professor so itʼs a privilege to have him here to speak,” says Koury. Lintala has just in- stalled one of his large-scale sculptures in downtown Chatham in the Narrowland Gallery Garden in preparation for this weekend. Heʼll host an opening of his work from 5 to 8pm and will give the lecture about his research from 8pm to 8:30pm. Visit www.NarrowlandGallery.com for more information.
### For more information please contact: Richard Koury Narrowland Gallery 483 Main Street Chatham, MA 02633 Rich@NarrowlandGallery.com
