For Nancy by Leo Vait
July 5, 2024 @ 8:00 am - July 29, 2024 @ 5:00 pm
For Nancy-
celebrating the life we lived together and the art i made along the way.
A collection of work by Homer artist Leo Vait
First Friday Opening Reception
July 5th from 5-7 pm
Nature never proceeds in a straight line, as it is always experimenting with possibilities. Water seeps from a spring that becomes a brook, nosing it’s way downhill, searching a path that cleans pebbles and stones in no hurry. It excites the growth of mosses and trees in a burbbling language of meditation as it flows into a pooled glen. I approach my work in this stream dream as I nose my way into raw wood, ready to change direction as the grain of the medium dictates. No hurry. The echo of the stream and water sprites are the guiding principles when I develop sculptural shapes that may become an animal or an abstract vision.
My message is of a cosmic connection to the breathtaking beauty of nature expressed through sculptural shapes and drawings. I can’t deny that spirits of some kind are guiding through my creative process, like spiritual sidekicks. I like to imagine these spirit entities my finished work with jolly approval. My vision for this show is that people viewing will feel the touch of magic that I perceive in the completion of my artwork.
I started showing my work in galleries in 1975. I participated in a number of shows in Oregon until 1982. My wife and I escaped to Nanwalek, (English Bay)where she had a teaching job in the village and I continued my artwork. My first show in Homer was in 1983 at the Pratt Museum. I have participated in other Pratt shows as well as several other Alaska galleries.
In the mid 90’s I developed a keen interest in functional art installations that incorporated stonework and woodwork. I gathered stones and drift logs from Homer beaches to build architectural features around fireplace settings, primarily. I continue this process today as well as producing works for galleries.
Leo Vait is an artist and sculptor living in Homer Alaska.
Vait’s interest in art began on his family’s dairy farm in Minnesota. “My brothers and I were cleaning a weed-choked drainage ditch, exposing a layer of smooth red clay. I was so excited that I loaded my 12-year-old arms with great gobs of this succulent clay and abandoned my brothers. I plunked some clay onto a couple of fence posts and began sculpting gargoyle-like monster heads. I didn’t know it at the time, but my muse had caught me. I was transported and transfixed out of our impoverished farm which became the thread of my artistic life.”
Vait continued to hone his craft as he moved west, escaping Midwest farm life. He began showing his work in galleries and participating in regional shows in Southern Oregon in 1975. He moved to Alaska in 1982 with his late wife, Nancy. His first show in Homer was in 1983 at the Pratt Museum, opening a door to gallery shows across the state of Alaska. In the years since, Vait also has been commissioned to create several public works around the state, including “Bone Music”; a large-scale steel sculpture in Anchorage Alaska.
Working primarily in found-driftwood from the beaches of Homer, Vait’s work is reminiscent of the very Alaskan landscape from which he sources his materials. “In this show, many pieces depict realism. I will often bend that realism into a stylistic shape; for instance, making animals into flowing entities.”
The upcoming show is titled “For Nancy”; dedicated to Vait’s late wife, who had a profound impact on Leo’s work. “She always gave me her critical eye, which was constructive, even if sometimes she didn’t like the direction of a given piece. I became acutely aware of the vacuum of effervescent and mysterious air that she lived in.” When Nancy passed in 2022, Vait returned to his studio and rediscovered a collection of unfinished works that he had created over the course of their nearly 50-years together. He found solace in returning to the work he had begun during their marriage. “I want to finalize the experience of the life of creativity we shared. The finishing of these works amounts to a closure of our life together.”
All pieces will be available for purchase.