The works of Chris Teeter

Art is a language, a non-verbal language for me. To speak it, you learn the vocabulary, then the grammar and rhetoric. Then you can tell a story or write a poem or describe what it is you experience. Communicate.

Sculpture for me is a dialogue with an unknown, speaking without words, in order to come to a mutual understanding. I start without having any idea where I'm going. One thing leads to another literally. At the end I find myself in new territory, having covered strange ground to get there. This makes the journey exciting, difficult, vital, and full of discovery but never boring. I never know what a day will bring.

I like junk. Discarded things are no longer linked to their intended functions; they are just shapes, interesting fragments, and bits of treasure. My raw material…words waiting to be used anew in stories, narratives and poems.

And I like steel. Mild steel means tough but malleable, as in easily persuaded or influenced. I like the combination of roughness and compliancy coupled with its non-precious status in the hierarchy of metals. Art should be a little rough around the edges; after all it comes from people who like going to the lonely out-of-the-way places where it lives.

My sculpture then, is what I make out of life.