Human | Nature: Figures from the Craig Ponzio Sculpture Collection
Art inspires art. Hear original music by inspired by the sculptures below.
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Shadow of a Woman
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La Grande Pénélope
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The Guardians
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Starry, Starry Night
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The Couple
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La Sphinge
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The Weight
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Trust
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Benediction II
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An Hour Before Dawn
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Bedford Sentinel II
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La Grande Muse de Whistler
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Lights
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Infanta Margarita
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Awake
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Jaunty Hornbeam
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Dos mujeres de pie
Shadow of a Woman
Peter Ambrose
Edition 1/6, bronze, 2006. Artwork © Peter Ambrose. Collection of Craig Ponzio
J. Hamilton Isaacs is a Denver musician who takes a synthesizer-driven approach to experimental music. His music combines the longform compositions and live collage sensibilities of academic electronic music with a manic, improvised energy to create a unique sensory experience.
Artist statement about this musical composition: “I included a melody with randomized elements that is based on the harmonic series of a single tone, emulating the way the sun casts shadows that morph as the earth turns, or sunlight refracting as it passes the atmosphere to produce beautiful variations of a single magnificent source.”
La Grande Pénélope (Large Penelope)
Émile-Antoine Bourdelle
Bronze, ca. 1912. Collection of Craig Ponzio.
Ryan McRyhew, who produces music under the name “Entrancer”, is a Denver producer whose works include a wide-range of visual and auditory art. Primarily electronic based, his ambient music is textural and deliberate, rooted in a deep appreciation for techno and hip-hop styles.
Artist statement about this musical composition: “This piece reflects strength and devotion but also focuses on the deterioration caused by the passage of time.”
The Guardians
Squire Broel
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Editions 1,2 and 3 of 6, bronze, 2014. Artwork © Squire Broel. Collection of Craig Ponzio.
Ryan McRyhew, who produces music under the name “Entrancer”, is a Denver producer whose works include a wide-range of visual and auditory art. Primarily electronic based, his ambient music is textural and deliberate, rooted in a deep appreciation for techno and hip-hop styles.
Artist statement about this musical composition: “This song was composed around the concept of spiritual objects providing space for ritual and self-reflection. The beating rhythm serves as a vibrating pulse within yourself and throughout the universe.”
Starry, Starry Night
Leon Bronstein
Edition 1/5, bronze, 2015. Artwork © Leon Bronstein. Collection of Craig Ponzio.
J. Hamilton Isaacs is a Denver musician who takes a synthesizer-driven approach to experimental music. His music combines the longform compositions and live collage sensibilities of academic electronic music with a manic, improvised energy to create a unique sensory experience.
Artist statement about this musical composition: “This piece is about music as a conversation between two people, hearing each other and hearing themselves among the collage of their surroundings. They cease talking so as to hear more of what the night itself has to say.”
The Couple
Jim Budish
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Bronze, 2015. Artwork © Jim Budish. Collection of Craig Ponzio.
Madeline Johnston, known also as “Sister Grotto” and “Midwife”, is a Denver-based experimental musician. She is a multi-instrumentalist whose minimalistic style informs her approach to meditative and dynamic ambient music.
Artist statement about this musical composition: “Support. Movement. Longing. Hold me. Trust. Matrimony. Seasons ending. Earth. Togetherness. Growth. Parallel. Yearn.”
La Sphinge (The Sphinx)
Joseph Csáky
Edition 4/8, bronze, 1950 (cast 1986). Artwork © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. Collection of Craig Ponzio.
Madeline Johnston, known also as “Sister Grotto” and “Midwife”, is a Denver-based experimental musician. She is a multi-instrumentalist whose minimalistic style informs her approach to meditative and dynamic ambient music.
Artist statement about this musical composition: “Power. Reflection. Crossing. Patience. Mirage. Contemplation. Un-trust. Egypt. Charmers. Another Horizon. The path. Drawing in the sand.”
The Weight
Eric Fischl
Edition 1/3, bronze, 1996. Artwork © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Collection of Craig Ponzio. Photo: Denver Botanic Gardens.
Madeline Johnston, known also as “Sister Grotto” and “Midwife”, is a Denver-based experimental musician. She is a multi-instrumentalist whose minimalistic style informs her approach to meditative and dynamic ambient music.
Artist statement about this musical composition: “Depravity. Heaviness. No Cure. Solitude. Lapse. Falling. A means to its own un-doing. Water. Grief. Exhaust. Exhale. Unbearable. Sufferer.”
Trust
Kendra Fleischman
Bronze, 2005. Artwork © Kendra Fleischman. Collection of Craig Ponzio.
J. Hamilton Isaacs is a Denver musician who takes a synthesizer-driven approach to experimental music. His music combines the longform compositions and live collage sensibilities of academic electronic music with a manic, improvised energy to create a unique sensory experience.
Artist statement about this musical composition: “Trust means letting go of an attachment to fear. This a healing exercise. The melody is intentionally warm and slow, reflecting on the image of a person falling backward into the arms of another.”
Benediction II
Jacques Lipchitz
Bronze, 1943. Collection of Craig Ponzio.
Ryan McRyhew, who produces music under the name “Entrancer”, is a Denver producer whose works include a wide-range of visual and auditory art. Primarily electronic based, his ambient music is textural and deliberate, rooted in a deep appreciation for techno and hip-hop styles.
Artist statement about this musical composition: “Unsettling; this piece follows the contortion and anguish depicted in the sculpture.”
An Hour Before Dawn
Sassona Norton
Bronze, 2001. Artwork © Sassona Norton. Collection of Craig Ponzio.
J. Hamilton Isaacs is a Denver musician who takes a synthesizer-driven approach to experimental music. His music combines the longform compositions and live collage sensibilities of academic electronic music with a manic, improvised energy to create a unique sensory experience.
Artist statement about this musical composition: “The figure seems completely absorbed in thought, inhabiting a place in her mind of deep solemnity. Her gaze fixed, not on any external focal point, but inward towards some larger truth. The music in this piece corresponds to an epiphany and its transfiguration into the serenity of knowing. “
Bedford Sentinel II
Beverly Pepper
Edition 1/5, bronze, 1990. Artwork © Beverly Pepper. Collection of Craig Ponzio.
Ryan McRyhew, who produces music under the name “Entrancer”, is a Denver producer whose works include a wide-range of visual and auditory art. Primarily electronic based, his ambient music is textural and deliberate, rooted in a deep appreciation for techno and hip-hop styles.
Artist statement about this musical composition: “Like the sculpture, this song has a weathered and worn aesthetic. Developing out of white noise, the composition slowly evolves in and out of harmony and structure.”
La Grande Muse de Whistler (Study for the Whistler Muse)
Auguste Rodin
Edition 2 /8, bronze, 1908 (cast 1988). Collection of Craig Ponzio.
Ryan McRyhew, who produces music under the name “Entrancer”, is a Denver producer whose works include a wide-range of visual and auditory art. Primarily electronic based, his ambient music is textural and deliberate, rooted in a deep appreciation for techno and hip-hop styles.
Artist statement about this musical composition: “This composition echoes the towering form of La Grande Muse de Whistler, combining both ethereal and material sounds to reflect the mystical beauty of the sculpture.”
Lights
Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir
Lights (detail), cast iron and glass, 2009. Artwork © Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir. Collection of Craig Ponzio.
Madeline Johnston, known also as “Sister Grotto” and “Midwife”, is a Denver-based experimental musician. She is a multi-instrumentalist whose minimalistic style informs her approach to meditative and dynamic ambient music.
Artist statement about this musical composition: “Waiting. Watching backwards. Maternity. Omnipotence. Anticipation. Wounds. Light reaching through. Time unmoving. Premonition. A stillness. What lies ahead?”
Infanta Margarita
Manolo Valdés
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Bronze, 2005. Artwork © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VEGAP, Madrid. Collection of Craig Ponzio.
Madeline Johnston, known also as “Sister Grotto” and “Midwife”, is a Denver-based experimental musician. She is a multi-instrumentalist whose minimalistic style informs her approach to meditative and dynamic ambient music.
Artist statement about this musical composition: “Regality. Revolt. Holy. Rules. A prisoner. Loneliness. Identity complex. Freeing the character. Boast. Icon. Femininity. History overlooking. Lines. Cascade.”
Awake
Ann Vrielinck
Bronze, ca. 2014. Artwork © Ann Vrielinck. Collection of Craig Ponzio.
“offthesky” is sound artist Michael Jason Corder from Denver, Colorado. His prolific career has included more than 70 releases over the past 15 years. His approach to music includes both melodic and atonal elements, with traditional acoustic instruments joined by more experimental electronic and found-sound elements.
Artist statement about this musical composition: “This piece is an interpretation of how a forest comes to life in an endless, orchestrated tsunami of color and motion each morning.”
Jaunty Hornbeam
Joseph Wheelwright
Bronze, 2008. Artwork © estate of Joseph Wheelwright. Collection of Craig Ponzio.
J. Hamilton Isaacs is a Denver musician who takes a synthesizer-driven approach to experimental music. His music combines the longform compositions and live collage sensibilities of academic electronic music with a manic, improvised energy to create a unique sensory experience.
Artist statement about this musical composition: “This is music for a cinematic mental image: an infernal tree wizard roams the desolate wood, his roots upended, charging the air as he floats along. Spooky.”
Dos mujeres de pie (Two Standing Women)
Francisco Zúñiga
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Edition of 3, 1959 (cast 1981), bronze. Artwork © Fundación Zúñiga Laborde A.C. Collection of Craig Ponzio.
“offthesky” is sound artist Michael Jason Corder from Denver, Colorado. His prolific career has included more than 70 releases over the past 15 years. His approach to music includes both melodic and atonal elements, with traditional acoustic instruments joined by more experimental electronic and found-sound elements.
Artist statement about this musical composition: “The song represents a conversation between the two figures in the sculpture. There are three different singers: a slightly deeper voice to represent the taller woman (sung by Laura Gardner), a slightly higher voice to represent the shorter woman (sung by Rin Howell), and a third singer to represent the communal voice (sung by Audrey Bartus). This third voice comes in at the end as all the instruments combine around the denouement.”
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