July 26 2022 - Floyd Pine Cones

 

Once you've seen a Floyd Elzinga Pinecone, you will recognize his work - whatever the subject.  He is a Canadian sculptor who lives nearby in Beamsville, so his studio is accessible and one can see his work easily as he has open houses frequently.  The 13th Street Winery has a new art gallery and Floyd's work is being exhibited there.  Here's one of his pieces in the gallery. Here is a cluster of his  gorgeous pinecones, and then a wall piece.

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Pinecone Invasion Reaches Toronto

I was in Toronto in the week, and my first stop was the Brookfield Plaza.  It is the atrium space between Bay and Yonge Street close to Front Street. It is a magnificent space, serene and soaring.  Jonah in the Whale is the metaphor that seems to describe this space for me. What would draw me to this space?  It has an art exhibit that I was looking forward to experiencing - Floyd Elzinga's Pinecone Exhibit.  It was a delight.  The space is so vast that some of the pinecones appear small.  But this is not the case - they are large.  I found these natural forms to be beautiful and enchanting in the space. I find out that I would clearly fail Art Appreciation 101.  And I got a lesson in how an artist gets good press with interesting stories.  Floyd's intent is the opposite of what I see.  Here's what he says in an article about the pinecones. 'These “Colonization Devices“, as Elzinga has dubbed them, illustrate and explore the dichotomous nature of seeds — simultaneously seen as innocuous and aggressive. With that in mind, Elzinga sought instead to aim attention at the threatening, almost hostile nature of the seeds, using the ordinariness of steel and its commonplace use to liken them not to the organic yet geometricized form they resemble, but to machinery and artillery; in turn, equating them to hand grenades. This juxtaposition of the seeds’ reason for being – colonization — and the sculptures’ shape emulating a hand grenade or bomb inserts an irrefutable political agenda into the artwork and fouls the pine cone’s purity. By comparing the potential of both seed and bomb, Elzinga insinuates that the pair possess the innate desire to stay alive — to invade and colonize.'

Floyd Elzinga Extraordinary Artist

The Artist's Vision

Floyd Elzinga's Vision Floyd Elzinga is a sculptor in metal. He lives in Beamsville with his studio on Mountain Street. The natural world is his subject. Here's his Artist Statement from his website  http://www.floydelzinga.com   "Rotten stumps, broken branches, invasive species, ravaged trees as well as polar opposites and dysfunctional objects; these are the things that excite Floyd Elzinga. He has made a career out of highlighting and glorifying these through three dimensional sculpture, relief work and environmental installations for over 15 years. Current themes in his work focus on broken landscapes, portraits of trees and the aggressive nature of seeds." I asked Floyd's permission to photograph his work and to be able to publish my images. He is very receptive to this as his work is three dimensional sculpture, so the original work cannot be replaced or reproduced.  This allows me to to pursue my interest in pattern, line, texture and saturated colour with extraordinary subject matter - subjects of the artist's eye that incorporate the natural world and urban materials.