I believe that my artistic life began as a youngster. My Father was a hydro-geologist who traveled the world, Mother was a writer and weaver, so as kids in foreign lands in the 50’s and 60’s we often had to be very resourceful. Thus we were always making our own toys and building forts and digging caves, exploring the natural environment and creating things, rather than relying on store-bought toys, which were not always available. On these overseas assignments we also lived near and played upon such environmental constructions as Machu Pichu, Jerash, Petra, Baalbek, Chartres and the like. When we returned from a tour overseas, Dad would build a house for us so I would help him, thus I learned working with tools and construction on a large scale as a youth. I believe that these amazing adventures around the world are still today very influential in my life and art. I believe also that these ancient monuments inspired in me a desire to create my own works of creativity that would also last for millennia and speak to people down thru time. I believe that these multi-national experiences instilled in me an understanding of the universality of humanity at an early age and today contributes to these qualities in my creative works. Today I have dozens of large-scale sculptures in public environments in twenty four different countries around the world, including British Columbia and Quebec.
I began painting seriously while attending a small liberal arts college in Urbana, OH, which led me to transfer to the Dayton Art Institute where I began studying sculpture and the other arts. After leaving DAI, I joined my Folks in Senegal, where Dad gave me a job in the bush so that I could earn enough money to then travel up to attend the Stuttgart State Art Academy where I created quite a number of sculptures. This lasted until I had a serious motor cycle accident and had to return to the States. I then hired on with Chuck Ginnever at his farm/studio outside Putney, Vermont, where I assisted him with his sculpture for a year—we met at DAI. He knew Paul Brach and Allan Kaprow who were starting up California Institute of the Arts out at Burbank, CA in 1970, so I traveled out there to work on my degrees: BFA – 1971 and MFA – 1972. Along with the two gentlemen noted, I studied with Lloyd Hamroll. I also studied Tai Chi Chuan with Marshall Ho’o, who had been brought in by the theatre dept. Two years in LA were quite enough, so I went to work at a gold mine in northern California, outside Magalia/Paradise/Chico, which lasted for two years. While there I built a number of “kinetic sculptures”—two mine trammers, a shaker screen, a large log-splitter, riffles, troughs, ran the D9 Catapiller bulldozer and back-hoe.
By the end of the two years I decided that I was indeed meant to be working on sculpture instead, so I joined my Folks in New Mexico for a time and began creating works that I was later to build as commissions throughout the States and overseas.
I returned to Yellow Springs in 1974 and set up a studio and did some university teaching. My first professional commission was in 1976 and the first % for Art project was for Miami DADE in 1979. I base my “professional” career upon these dates. I received a Lusk Memorial Fellowship from the Institute of International Education (Fulbright) in 1982, with which I studied stone and bronze working in Italy for a year. This was very inspirational as I have been working stone and bronze since then. In 1984 my Father and I built my current studio. I received a Vogelstein Foundation Award in 1996. I have participated in 27 sculpture symposia around the world since 1993 and have installed commissioned sculpture projects throughout the States and in 24 different countries around the world. Perhaps the two most important commissions have been the two major stainless steel sculptures: PARADIGM and MORNING STAR II, for the World Expo 1988 in Brisbane, Australia: he other being WIND DRAGON, for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Park.
As of November 2010, I have recently installed a firefighter/EMS memorial sculptural environment for Stubbs Park in Centerville, OH. I have also received word that one of my large-scale stone sculptures has been chosen by Tsinghua University in Beijing for its campus. Images of these and other sculpture projects may be seen on my web site:
www.hudsonsculpture.com