About My Work

I am interested in contrast. Our world confronts us with distinct contrasts: black versus white, right versus wrong, absolute truth versus truth by consensus, etc. In an increasingly relativistic society, such contrasts, like its people, lose their identity. With my sculpture, I try to represent this contrast by depicting order versus chaos, space versus negative space, geometric versus organic, etc. While my work appears abstract, it is actually quite representational from a conceptual standpoint. It represents the logical order of things; i.e., the steady decay of all systems over time - what in physics is referred to as entropy, or the "Second Law of Thermodynamics."

Wood is an organic material that suits me both artistically and philosophically. From the standpoint of an artistic medium, it provides its own contrast to our increasingly technological society. The Lord created the trees, and from those trees, woods with beautiful colors and intricate grain patterns. I attempt to create pleasant and interesting shapes using those woods. It is my challenge to to make minor additions without taking away from His work . . . essentially “touching up” a previously prepared canvas. It is a partnership in which I am humbled to be the junior partner.

Gary Holt Peer
Marsing, Idaho 2017

 
Studies for sculptures, circa late-1980s