Abraham McNally

Artist Statement: My sculptures develop from a set of relationships: material and tool, past and present, scale of sculpture and body of viewer. I’m drawn to materials from the rural northeast: cedar shingles, firewood, woolen cloth, boards from trees I cut with my father on his Christmas tree farm in Northern Vermont. These materials are naturally distinct and often hard for me to control. My history and personal associations with a material are critical, pulling me into an active conversation with the material and the past. The tools I use are commonplace but often have personal stories associated with them. Growing up in Vermont I would help my father cut trees for firewood or help my mother wedge clay in her shop. When I use a chainsaw or plaster mold in my studio in Brooklyn that history is always present.

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