Flights of Imagination

kmcolwith
beauty
holds back
,tbe results in
three.dimensional
year Tobey will introcolored glass wall
dinnerware featuring her
SHAMAN and the figures in
of her other works, Tobey is ex'panding to her fullest potential, experimenting, and letting her fertile imagination carry her. It's hard to imagine that
Friendsin a Storm lll, bronze,12x 17x 6.
her high school art teacher told her she
wasn't good enough to major in art and
directed her toward theater instead. With
an emphasis on scene design and set construction, she completed bachelor's and
master's degrees in theater arts at Adelphi University in Garden City, NY, and
what she learned there about creating art
that "reads well from a distance" and how
to work "hands-on" has served as a solid
foundation for her fine-art career.
TOBEYWAS born in Michigan and grew
up in Tennessee, where she spent a lot of
time tromping around in the woods. She
and her two siblings enjoyed "a lot rnore
freedom than today's children," she says.
When she was 7, her parents bought a cabin on a lake where the family spent their
summers. There was no television and
no telephone. "We read books, had pet
snakes,rescued a possum from the lake,
learned to be good swimmers, played
make-believe in the woods, and pretty
much went back to nature in ways most
kids even then did not get to do," she
says.Indian mounds on the lake's island
fascinated Tobey and were, perhaps, the
catalyst for her deep interest in other cultures. The artist credits those long summerswith helping her "forge an incredible
irnagination, as well as a deep respect for
nature." Today Tobey's grounded, spiritual connectionto the world around her is
reflected vividly in her work.
KOKOPELLI,one of several sculptures
she'screated of eaglesspiraling on wingtip, exemplifies how Tobey's connection
with nature and other cultures plays out
in her work. "I'm very observant of bird
life wherever I go," she explains, "and
. ' 1 ' : Pr " € S € l } t a t i o n
ExposuresInternational Gallery
of FineArt, Sedona,AZ.
i t F i .r : , ' r i n g s h o w s
Sculpture in the Park, Lovetand,CO,
Augustll-12.
IndianMarket show,Inn at Loretto,
SantaFe,NM, August17-19.
Western VisionsShow and Sale,
NationalMuseumof Wildlife Art, Jackson
Hote,WY September14.
Art for the Sangres,Westcliffe,CO,
'l9.
Seotember
Four-personshow,Exposures
International Gallery of FineArt,
October 12-13.
AUGUST 2012 . WWW.SOUTHWESTART.COM
O?
the opportunity to see an American eagle
is such a thrill." After she completed the
sculpture's overall form in oil-based clay,
it then sat in her studio waiting for her signature sgral.fto. Sgrffito is an Italian word
meaning "scratched inro the surface," and
it is the origin of the English word grat't'tti.
She wasn't sure what theme she wanted to
incorporate, so she stepped away from the
p i e c ef o r a w h i l e t o a w a i t i n s p i r a t i o n .
'fobey
then spent two weekends hiking
near Santa Fe and observing pictographs
chipped into black basalt boulders.
Among these simple Native epitaphs were
many versionsof Kokopelli, the legendary
hunchbacked flute player that appears frequently in Southwestern art, music, and
myth. At one location, she saw severalanimal Kokopellis-hunchbacked possums
or jackrabbits playing flutes. Inspiration
-lbbey
struck.
returned to her sculpture
and drew the hunchbacked flautist onto
the surface of the eagle. The kokopelli's
head is incised on the eagle's head, and
the eagle's upper wing shows the extension of the Kokopelli's outstretched
hand, his fingers etched into the eagle's
wingtips. "-[hose llashes of inspiration,"
she says, "are the moments that make the
studio terribly exciting."
Ihe artist says she especially relishes
the long hours her ceramics require. fhe
artist first sculpts a figure in clay and then
creates a plaster mold of it. Liquid claycalled slip-is poured into the mold, filling
it completely. When the slip has firmed up
to a thickness of about 7+ inch, the stillliquid clay in the center of the mold is
-lbbey
poured out.
usually leaves the clay
shell in the mold for a few days until it
reachesa leather-hard stage. At that point,
she removes the plaster mold, revealing the
fresh new sculpture. After the piece dries
for a couple of weeks, she applies three
coats of matte textural glaze, leaving areas
bare for colored clay slips and white crack
le glaze. Next, she adds the sgralfro.Final
steps include a low-temperature bisque firing, applying clear glazes,and a final hightemperature glaze fi ring.
Speaking recently about what makes
-[obey's
work so highly sought-after, Marty Herman, owner of Exposures lnternational Gallery of Fine Art in Sedona,AZ,
says, "Rebecca is passionate about the
animal world. Her work often starts with
a statement about the dominant person'
ality of an animal and then evolves into
Kokopelli, bronze, l8 x 9 x 3.
98 WWW.SOUTHWESTART.COM . AUGUST 2012
Thoseflashesof
inspirationare
the momentsthat make
the studio
terribly exciting.
magical images in which she evocatively
unites human spirit and animal forms.
Every piece tells its own story."
Tobey is often inspired to try out fresh
approaches to her work as she wanders the
world, both domestically and abroad. Constantly on the lookout for inspiration, she
says she looks at everything to find new
images she can interpret in her sculptures.
During a trip to Paris last summer, she became determined to find a way to make her
art more contemporary while continuing
to honor history and past cultures.
SPIRITFLIGHT was one of the first of
her new works to explore turning an animal into something beyond its physical
characteristics. She sculpted the legendary Plains buffalo, adding to its surface
the colorful image of an Indian war bonnet extending back from the animal's
head over a western landscape. The two
main symbols blend poignantly to create
a three-dimensional rnetaphor about a
historic way of life. Tobey's ability to cast
complex narratives in new light is among
her greatest strengths as an artist.
Each of Tobey's artworks carries a title
that means something important to her.
'Art touches a chord in the heart or soul
of my collectors, and the name of the
piece is part of that chord," she says. oF
ten she uses romantic place names that
remind her of her travels. She feels the
title is "part of the process of discovery,
creating an aura for the piece that transports us back to what inspired it."
Tobey's work has become part of public
and private collections around the world,
and her reputation as a sculptor continues
to build. Because she draws inspiration
from a variety of cultures, the appeal of her
art transcends borders. Her style has been
called both sophisticated and primal. At
first glance her work is about shape and
Spirit Flight,ceramic,22x 22 x 8.
form-from
afar, viewers see graceful silhouettes-but closer examination reveals
their complexity in a maze of textures,
symbols, figures, and geometric designs.
While family and work are Tobey's primary foci, she is also devoted to a number of philanthropic movements. When
her husband died in 2006, she came face
to face with how fleeting life can be and
decided to commit more energy to giving
back. She established the Gene Tobey Memorial Art Scholarship, which gives three
small scholarships to schools that meant
a lot to her husband during his lifetime.
In addition, each year she donates a
sculpture to be auctioned for one of the
organizations she supports, and she stays
active in community organizations. In
2009 Tobey was selected as the featured
artist for Santa Fe's l4th annual ARTfeast,
for which honorees are charged with "encouraging aspiring artists to push their
limits and reach new heights." She car-
ried out that charge by helping students
at Capital High School produce ceramic
artworks that were sold during the event.
All has not been wine and roses for Tobey. Following her own fight against cancer and the loss of her husband and colIaborator, in recent years she has returned
to her life stronger than ever. As she describes it. "I feel like that kid in the movie
BillyElliot, the one who said he felt electric
when he danced. I, too, feel electric when
I get into the studio and begin to work.
What an exciting time this is for mel" o..
nationalmagaRosemary
Carstens
writesfor several
zinesandpublishes
the award-winning
onlinematazineFEA5fat www.feastof
books.com.
AUGUST 2012 . WWW.SOUTHWESTART.COM
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