PAUL WATSON
Paul Watson is a sculptor and print maker from North Reading, MA and is currently located in Asheville, NC where he is the co-owner of Molten Made Gallery. Before Asheville, Watson was the resident artist at Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum. As the Resident Artist, Watson rans the July artist work shops, cared for and restored over 150 sculptures and maintained three miles of hiking trails.
Watson received his Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts with a concentration in sculpture in December 2015 from Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
His work has been in exhibitions nationally included the Steering Committee Exhibition at the National Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art and Practices at Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, AL and in the Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum’s Ongoing Exhibition. Watson has received several awards for his work in the cast iron community including the Erik Johnson Award and he was a member of the Steering committee for NCCCIAP in 2017 and 2019 where he co-organized all of the performances during the conference.
Watson works mainly in cast iron, steel, and concrete. He also creates his own carved woodblock prints. His work explores the concept of humanity through decay and anatomy.
Watson’s favorite thing in the world is his dog Ingot who he found in the woods at Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum in 2015.
Julie Slattery is a sculpture artist based in Asheville, North Carolina. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree with a concentration in sculpture from Alfred University (Alfred, New York). After graduating, Slattery moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico to pursue her sculpture career, where she worked in several bronze casting foundries including working as a metal chaser at the world famous Shidoni Bronze Foundry (Tesuque, NM). Slattery has exhibited her work across the country including Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum in Solsberry, Indiana and most recently exhibited work at the Caldwell Arts Annual Sculpture Celebration Show where she received the First Place Award for her sculpture “Don’t Tell Me To Get A Grip”.
“My sculptural work explores emotional responses of loss and attachment. The figures and objects I create reflect sensations of unease, oddity, and a recognition of something that was or could have been. I incorporate contrasting materials and textures to show the different sides of human nature. Soft and smooth against rough and raw. These contrasts communicate moments of change and moments of reflection.
Interested in casting as a conveyance of temperance and transition, I utilizes the process to communicate the importance of reflection in honest self-expression. I bring my creations to fruition using reactions to changes, adaptations, and transformations as influences I encounter in my own life. I value cast metal and its process for the relevance of perseverance.
The casting process is long and tedious. It requires the transition of one material to another through a series of molds. Each mold opens to a new and changed object which is then perfected in the final piece. This process relates to the ever growing and changing that exist within ourselves as humans. Every 7 years our entire body has rebuilt all of its cells. We are literally a new person.
My work incorporates the human body and common everyday objects to inspire relatability. Forming a connection with the viewer by capturing a moment in a feeling, the piece becomes a conversation of the human struggles and victories that we experience daily.”