When Jack Bergeron put together his current wall sculpture exhibit, he said he used both sides of his brain.
Studies in cognitive science have shown things like creativity, art and music come from the right side of the brain, while more logical and mathematical thinking come from the left.
"Sculpture works well for me because it is process orientated and it's very linear and additive -- you know one thing right after another. So that is very left brain," he said. "But the actual design of the thing is very right brain. It is very spontaneous and intuitive. So for me sculpture is a good combination of both sides of my brain."
Personally, Bergeron said he is very left and right brained as well. He plays the saxophone and rides a motorcycle and has been sculpting for 40 years. In college, he was a math major for a while before he switched to art.
Bergeron has a bachelor's in art from Michigan State University and earned his master's from Central Michigan University. Currently, he teaches figure drawing as an adjunct at Lansing Community College, where he has worked since 1977 and taught more than 15 different courses and dabbled in administrative work as well.
| Jack Bergeron Gallery 1212, Lansing Through Aug. 14 gallery1212.com, (517) 999-1212 |
For Bergeron, this is his third wall sculptor exhibit. His first show, more than 10 years ago, was strictly metal. After that he wanted to focus on movement and kinetic plastic for a second exhibit.
In this show, Bergeron said has combined the two mediums, plastic and metal, to show geometric shapes and nonobjective art.
"This is just pure design," Bergeron said. "There really isn't any kind of theme in mind."
Bergeron said he started working on these pieces back in mid-April. He worked out of a friend's shop near Ionia and gathered most of the metal from a local scrap yard. The plastic, he said, he already had from previous work.
Once he was out picking the scrap pieces the wheels really began to turn in his head, he said.
"I wanted to mix up a lot of things," he said. "You know when you are out there in the scrap yard you just kind of start grabbing things and saying, ‘you know, this is a cool shape."‘
Gallery 1212 will have Bergeron's work on display until Aug. 15. For more information visit gallery1212.com or call (517) 999-1212.
