August 2005: Crystal Schenk Multi Medium

Crystal Schenk works with a variety of materials, from crocheted silver wire to cast bronze, concrete to paper to create her sculptures.  Schenk lets the materials create the tone of the work, from lighthearted and eccentric to heavy and introspective.  Schenk has found a growing theme in her work, concentrating on the framework of people’s lives.  Many of the sculptures are figurative, with reoccurring images of ribs, vertebra, hearts and veins, each representing the hidden structures that support us and give us strength.  One example of this is a cast concrete sculpture, which resembles a spine curved into an arc with an attached steel turnbuckle as if to hold it taught and in place.