Alan Emerson Hicks
Sculptures, Drawings, Painted Panels
"Art Illusionist / Fiber Artist"
Biography:
Alan Emerson Hicks was born in Chicago, Illinois. He attended Lindblom Technical High
School and received a Bachelor's of Fine Art Degree from Illinois State University. Studying
sculpture at ISU gave him the opportunity to work with a very progressive and avant garde
professor, Catherine Johnson. A recent graduate student of Rutgers University, she turned her
sculpture class into a multi-media work experience, emphasizing spacial relationships. While in
school he also studied woodworking, metal smithing, drawing and print making.
After graduating he decided to begin his career as an artist. He found a fascination with beads
and jewelry making initially, making mostly necklaces that used macrame techniques with glass,
clay, brass and semi-precious stone beads. After a few years of collecting and stringing beads he
made the decision to start sculpting again, he used the techniques learned while jewelry making
to make large textured and heavily painted wall pieces (wall jewelry). These wall sculptures had
themes of gods, mythological creatures and folklore. This work was gratifying but didn't connect
him to the passion his work had to offer
.
In early fall of the year 2000, Alan met a poet / musician Daniel Godston who challenged him to
produce performance art. Although he had studied a little performance art in school, he didn't
feel comfortable with the medium. He did like the challenge and idea of creating a new kind of
art form. The first performance was a disaster, but it did connect him to the passion that was
missing from the earlier pieces. There was an immediacy with the performance pieces and they
didn't use paint, a material he would later stop using in his sculpture. The performance art pieces
would be developed into works he calls "temporal sculptures". These temporal sculptures would
also influence his studio work as well, becoming fiber art sculptures. It was his passion for work
that looks immediate that would drive him. He also enjoys working in front of an audience.
Themes of gods and mythology are still used in his studio work. Ideas of magic and the
manipulation of time are used in the performance pieces. "If you make art wholeheartedly, it will
inform you of the direction it should take. Artist receive from art exactly what they put into their
art form". Alan feels the most important aspect of creating art is making art.
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