Stephen Daly, Texas Sculpture Group

From Austin, Texas

Artist Statement:

I am interested in making art that has a strong visual presence and communicates ideas that may be interpreted in multiple ways. Formal development is usually complimented by context, use of materials, and scale.

Content probes the ways in which we communicate with one another or with a natural or synthetic space. The psychological aspect of communication is explored by investigating how we use our senses to see, hear, think and wonder. A mix of formal, symbolic, and referential elements converge to bring viewers into a ballpark of content or associations, leaving their experiences to be enhanced through personal observation or interpretation.

I make sculpture, drawings and objects that combine drawing and sculptural elements. I enjoy the deliberate nature of sculpture and its existence in the same space as that of the viewer. Conversely, the gesture, immediacy and atmosphere possible in drawing can accomplish much that the discrete object cannot.

Artist Biography:

Daly was born on the East coast and raised on the West coast.  First creative impulses were in music with transition to art occurring half way through high school.  At first “real” sculpture is made, as a student in the early 60’s, at San Jose State University in Northern CA. Primary media interest at this time was cast bronze and aluminum.  Image tended to be anthropomorphic organic and mechanical combinations.

Training continued at Cranbrook Academy of Art Technical and aesthetic growth accelerated as ideas were challenged and refined. First teaching job (Univ. of Minnesota) begin the year after his MFA work.

The 70’s were split between teaching at Humbolt State Univ.(N. CA) and a 2-year residency as a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, Italy where drawing became a parallel interest and the figuration entered the vocabulary.

In 1981 Daly moved to Texas where he still works and lives.  A Professor Emeritus at the Univ. of Texas in Austin, Daly maintains a studio in Austin. www.daly-studio.com