About the Artist

It was 1990 when Russell Whiting fell in love with the possibility of carving steel and transforming it into sculpture. At that time, a welder/fitter working offshore for oil companies, he began to envision how that essentially “common” raw material could be transformed into something quite extraordinary.

his experiments with carving steel as a new art form began in earnest. It was not long before he realized steel could be carved much the same as wood. Fast-forwarding many years, Whiting then became intensely sensitive to the nature of molten steel and is now able to control its response to gravity by how hot it is. He now knows molten steel can be dripped, sagged, pierced, cut and gouged, all determined by the application of heat and oxygen pressure. Further, there are many surface textures unique to the torch: smooth, rippled, jagged, even pitted and embedded with slag.

What has most influenced the aesthetic direction(s) Whiting’s sculpture takes? According to him, “antiquity,” though his understanding of mythology and history is not academic. “it started in play and fantasy and has remained casual, unburdened by truth. Even my reference to Chiparus and other Art Deco work is not because I study them; it’s because I ran the streets of the French Quarter as a teen and was endlessly peering into the windows on Royal Street.”

Originally from Texas, This self taught sculptor lives and works from his studio in Alexandria Louisiana.

Additional works available through Gallery Asheville »
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