Sabin Howard – Page 8 – Author Blog by Traci L. Slatton

My speech at the ICAA for the BOOK LAUNCH/SCULPTURE SHOW

Posted on:March 3, 2012February 2, 2016

My speech at the ICAA

WELCOME to this book launch and celebration of classical art!!

I am so happy to see you here, and to welcome you to this wonderful evening of discussion about the value and importance of modern classicism. It’s a quixotic but urgent topic. I am here on stage with four of my favorite people—the honorable vice consul Signore Stefano Acunto, Jim Cooper, Peter Trippi, my husband Sabin Howard–to discuss this topic with you, and I’m so excited.

Please note there’s a lovely woman with an iPhone that can take your credit card information, if you’d like to buy a book. Sarah, where are you?

Let me take this opportunity to thank a few people, the ICAA and Signore Acunto and Mrs. Carole Acunto, Jim Cooper, Peter Trippi, David Ludwig, Todd Deskins, Sarah Miniaci, Drew Stevens, Don Steelman.

So, about this book THE ART OF LIFE….

A few weeks ago, in speaking with the honorable vice consul Steve Acunto, I told him that I would begin my talk by saying, “The Republicans think art is for sissies, and Democrats think art has to be ugly to be real art.”

“Well, Traci,” responded Signore Acunto, “then you shall have to wear a breastplate and helmet.” So rather than turn myself into a valkyrie, I decided to think more deeply about what I meant, polemics aside.

At this point I should probably disclose that, politically, I am currently a radical skeptic, and there are two groups whom I view with skepticism: Democrats and Republicans. Also, liberals and conservatives. Here in the waning years of the American Empire, partisan politics has made fools of us all.

And yes, art is political. I believe my husband Sabin will tell you that art is not political—that it transcends petty ephemeral concerns. But I believe that art speaks to who we are and how we want to live, so it’s very political.

So is ugly art real art because that gives certain groups the virtuous feeling that they support freedom?

When I ask the question that way, you already know where I stand.

It’s amazing to think that the 20^th century which gave rise to repeated genocides–repeated genocides–also gave rise to new intent and new methods to better ourselves, to become, as a human race, better–peaceful and tolerant. I am thinking about Gandhi, Mother Theresa, and Dr. Martin Luther King.

Along the way to evolving and becoming better as a human race, something happened. The problem for me is that in throwing out the bathwater, we threw out the baby. In throwing out discrimination, we threw out discernment. And we need discernment.

We need to discern between what is masterful and what is silly, what is skilled and what is sloppy, what is art and what is not. Currently in the culture there’s a underlying attitude among some groups that it’s not acceptable to discern, that to say, ”Sabin Howard’s work is art and Dung Madonna is not” makes you a (fill in the blank with the latest catchphrase for bad person) Nazi rascist bigot. Sabin calls this the “I’m ok, you’re ok, even the serial killer down the road” mentality.

But we do discern. Human beings intuitively sense mastery. We have an innate ability to look at something and see that it is beautiful, that it is powerful, that thought and skill and vision went into it. We just know.

But in much of the contemporary art world we are not supposed to know. We are not supposed to look. We’re supposed to understand visual art through our ears. We are supposed to listen to the heady babble of professors, PhD’s, and my personal favorite, gallery owners who have something to sell. We’re supposed to read the manual–The New York Times. We are supposed to stifle our authentic human response to a work of art.

So when an institution such as the National Endowment for Self-Expression funds images of the Virgin Mary submerged in urine, that institution may be pretending to support freedom, but what it is actually doing is legitimizing the stifling of our authentic human response to a work of art.

Don’t buy it. They’re selling snake oil. It’s scam art.

Marcel DuChamp did us all a disservice when he foisted a urinal on us. It would have been fine for a few minutes of intellectual shock value and entertainment. But here it is, 100 years later, and art is still being flushed down the toilet.

I am here to tell you: the emperor has no clothes.

The manual is irrelevant: looking is the point. Beauty is the point. Mastery is the point.

This doesn’t mean that there isn’t a place for ornamentation, decoration, entertainment, embellishment, and illustration. This doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for freaky fun. It means you can see the difference.

Now what about the other part of my polemical statement, art is for sissies.

I think this goes back to certain prevailing cultural notions about what’s butch and what’s manly, besides creating estate tax loopholes. Because you know, creating tax loopholes is very butch. It goes to our fascination with the anti-hero, with irony. We’re Americans, we’re outlaws, we’re renegades, we’re riding into the sunset. But we’d better watch out, because China is riding back out of the sunrise toward us. They’re bringing it.

And we’re responding with irony. TV and movies, the popular culture, is full of anti-heroic irony. It’s a defense. It’s a weak defense. Ultimately, it’s a defense against an open heart.

What art does, real art, REAL ART, is gives you an experience of an open heart. Whether it’s a novel, or a movie, or a well acted King Lear, or a painting or a piece of sculpture, you have an experience or your heart opening. You’re a better person because of it.

Real art uplifts you—it transforms you. It gives you an experience of transcendence, whether of joy or of sorrow, because both joy and sorrow move through an open heart.

Sabin Howard’s pieces lack irony as a deliberate choice to give the viewer an experience of the heart opening, of upliftment, of transformation. This is the most courageous choice of all. This is the most radical choice of all. This is the most visionary choice of all.

The great poet Rumi says:

In your light I learn how to love.  

In your beauty, how to make poems.  

You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you,  

but sometimes I do,  

and that sight becomes this art.

Thank you.

art · Sabin Howard · Sabin Howard sculpture

Sabin Howard Sculpture: DAILY NEWS ONLINE: SABIN HOWARD CREATES CLASSICAL …

Posted on:March 2, 2012February 2, 2016

Sabin Howard Sculpture: DAILY NEWS ONLINE: SABIN HOWARD CREATES CLASSICAL …: Check out this article online about Sabin’s studio in the Bronx.

Artist creates classical bronze sculptures of Greek gods and goddesses in Mott Haven

Walking into Sabin Howard‘s studio in Mott Haven is like stepping into a fine art gallery.

Clay and bronze statues of the Greek gods Hermes, Apollo and Aphrodite among others fill the 1,500-square foot studio.

“I am trying to return art to its sacred form,” he said, while working on pieces to be exhibited at the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art in Manhattan.

The gallery show, “Sabin Howard – The Classical Art of Sculpture,” opens Friday with a special reception and launch of his new book, The Art of Life.

“Post modern art is sacred to me,” said Howard, 48, of Manhattan. “I really got into it when I was in Italy. It affected me and I wanted to be surrounded by beauty. I didn’t want to make things that were just visually beautiful. I wanted to tell a story.”

Howard studied art at the Philadelphia College of Art and the New York Academy of Art. He taught for 20 years before turning to sculpture full time.

For Howard, the sculpture process starts with a live model. Then he builds an armature – steel bars welded together to resemble a stick figure – to fit within the figure. He then glues styrofoam onto the form.

Next, he adds clay. This is the most time consuming part. A life-sized piece of Aphrodite, for example, took 18 months to complete. And he’s been crafting a 28-inch statue of Apollo since last April, at times adding pieces of clay no bigger than a pinhead.

Sabin Howard · Sabin Howard sculpture · sculpting

Sabin Howard: The Man Who Sculpts Gods | Part 2 | Special Section | World | Epoch Times

Posted on:March 1, 2012February 3, 2016

Sabin Howard: The Man Who Sculpts Gods Epoch Times by Evan Mantyk and Katy Mantyk

“NEW YORK—Entering Sabin Howard’s studio in the Bronx is a unique experience. Through his lifelike sculptures, the gods’ penetrating stares are both humbling and uplifting.

“Collectors like them for their homes because they change the energy of a room,” said Howard.

Howard, who has spent his life between Italy and New York, stood in front of a sculpture of Apollo—God of the Sun from the Greek and Roman tradition—with perfect physique and graceful pose.

“You can see I extended the sternum and lifted it up toward the sky, so there’s more luminosity coming onto the chest—and that’s where your heart chakra is—then the openness with the arms stretched outward. It’s really about the possibility of what we can be,” Howard said.

The Apollo sculpture alone took Howard more than five years and $85,000 to produce, including materials and paying two models to pose for long hours.

Reflecting on Howard’s work, Stefano Acunto, chairman of the Italian Academy Foundation (IAF), said, “The word ‘masterpiece’ in Italian is ‘capolavori’—’lavori’ means to labor, to work. And you really see that in Sabin’s sculptures.”

The hard work paid off. After Sabin makes a first sculpture, he can create a mold and is able to make a series. With around 180 collectors worldwide, he sold the first three in the Apollo series for within the six-figure range and plans to create six more.

Presented by the IAF, Howard’s work, including his sculptures of Apollo and Greek gods Aphrodite and Hermes, will be on exhibit March 2 through March 22 at the Institute for Classical Architecture and Art (ICAA), at the institute’s historic West 44th Street headquarters.

Why does he often sculpt gods? “I pick titles that are universal, that can be understood by the community, and art is in service of the community,” Howard said.

Contemporary Versus Classical

Howard’s work is something that can be instantly appreciated for its masterful skill.

“The UPS guy and the fireman understand it; they walk in here and go, ‘Wow, this is real art,’” Howard said.

But his sculptures also stand in opposition to the many more abstract sculptures that have become the bread and butter of modern sculptors and the center of the contemporary art world.

“What Sabin is doing is so important because his work reflects on themes and techniques that are the basis of art, which are ignored so often in the production of contemporary art, which is more temporary than anything else,” Acunto said.

Howard, 48, said that the modern art of the last 50 to 60 years has gotten too entrenched in academic language.

“Now the conceptual part and the manual … [have] become more important than the art itself. So you read all this philosophy about the work, and there’s nothing wrong with that per se. But when that becomes more important than the actual object—and the actual object might be a pile of cinder blocks on the floor—then I have a problem because art represents me on a cultural level,” said Howard, who taught figure sculpture and drawing at the graduate level for 20 years.

“I don’t want to be represented by, say, pieces of mud smeared on canvas, or a pile of bricks. I want to be represented by art that really shows us rising to the occasion as human beings,” he said.

Howard isn’t alone. His exhibit at the ICAA will open on March 2 with a panel that also features other leading exponents of classicism in art, including editor of Fine Art Connoisseur, Peter Trippi, and editor of American Arts Quarterly, James Cooper.“

art · authors · interview · Sabin Howard · Sabin Howard sculpture

Great interview of me and my husband Sabin Howard

Posted on:February 20, 2012February 2, 2016

Lively, appealing, informative Londoncalling.com posted a thoughtful interview of me and my husband Sabin Howard. We answered questions about our book THE ART OF LIFE.

Check out the article here.

London Calling talked to sculptor Sabin Howard and his wife, author Traci L. Slatton, about their collaborative book, The Art of Life, a collection of essays and visually stunning photography detailing Sabin’s equally stunning sculptural work.

London Calling: What was the original genesis for the book project and how long did it take to complete?

Traci L. Satton: Sabin claims that he was talking about his work one morning, as he does obsessively, and I said, “We have to write a book. People need to know what you’re doing and why it matters.”

Sabin Howard: The whole idea was to reach a broader audience and to educate them. People have lost the concept that they can have an opinion about art that is contrary to the established academic status quo. The art world is run by critics and academicians who are not trained in the visual, but who are more trained as writers writing a manual explaining art. I see the title “visual art” as self explanatory. Art is visual first and foremost. The book returns to the idea that you need to look at the piece and be with it. Then you can write or talk about it. It’s not the other way around, as current “concept art” espouses.

LC: The book is very personal, almost a love letter in places. Was it a challenge making a book so close to home?

TLS: Yes! Sometimes our discussions grew rousing. Names might have been called, objects might have been hurled.

SH: Making the type of art that I do is already extremely personal. I understand that any choices I make in my art expose how I think. If you look at my sculptures, they are completely out in the open because they are nude. Explaining the human and personal process of making my art was not uncomfortable. Without Traci, I wouldn’t have been able to put this in writing that was accessible to the general public. I would write something that was more esoteric. It was really important that I follow Traci’s lead in how the narrative was assembled.