Londoncalling.com interview of Sabin Howard

Lively, informative Londoncalling.com did a terrific interview of me and my wife Traci L. Slatton.


Here's one of the rather brilliant questions author Kathryn Havelock posed:


LC: Much of Sabin’s work has echoes of the antique, for instance in the use of fragments of the human form and also, for instance, by depicting images of gods. Is there a creative tension here in terms of keeping work relevant to modern audiences or is sculpture perhaps a more ‘timeless’ art form than many others?
 TLS: In my mind, because Sabin lives now and is immersed in this time, his work is absolutely of this moment. The rigor and quality of his work may be at the level of a Renaissance or Hellenistic masterpiece, but the faces and physiques of his figures could belong to no other era than ours. Take a look at Aphrodite’s core. The model for the core is an Aikido master, and the strength of that belly bespeaks the modern woman: strong and feminine together. This is an Aphrodite for our time: graceful, gorgeous, and sweet, but also powerful.
 SH: I don’t buy into this whole concept of ‘what is modern art.’ Art represents us on a cultural level, and it also represents us on a personal level. I have always aspired to rise to the occasion on all levels, physical and mental. I find that the path I create for myself is my path, and the Greco-Roman tradition is very close to me because my family lineage came out of Italy. On a cultural level, the art is a portal into what can be, not about what is.
 
I do not follow the popular trend of depicting man in a lower light than he can be. I follow a higher culture that understands that our tradition is relevant, that it’s a source. It’s not archaeological, it’s a recreation and reinvention using a timeless form: the human body.


Check out the whole interview here!