after the storm
ROGER COLOMBIK
january 22 – march 7, 2025
closing reception: march 1, 5–8pm
[ On view in Gallery 1 ]
A kaleidoscopic specter of refracting light blankets the land and morning is a frozen shroud. Entire trees, each and every oak leaf encased within large crystalline clusters, pulling the branches from azure to earth. A reckoning with gravity awaits the cedars as the needles are weighted in surreal ice flows. With the passing hours, each degree of warmth brings a steady, rhythmic melt of destruction and the echoes of fractured limbs, felled trees, and the sounds of the forest crying.
Walking the land and observing the destruction requires disengagement from emotions and memory; I simply need to breathe and accept the reality. I begin to reexamine the responsibilities of stewardship for this small piece of earth I call home. Aside from the immensity of the cleanup that awaits everyone in the region, another responsibility comes to mind, of grace, of returning a bit of grace to a shattered forest. There is a near unlimited resource for the imagination. Every limb, log, trunk and branch holds forth the possibility of a new sculptural reality.
Everything before me is a connection to the beauty that was, to the beauty that can be.
Wimberley, February 2022
to begin…again
ROGER COLOMBIK
january 22 – march 7, 2025
closing reception: march 1, 5–8pm
[ On view in Gallery 2 ]
To Begin… Again
Wishful thinking, certainly. And yet, the daily breath to accomplish this very task when balanced against the principles of necessary losses might seem fanciful at any age, but it’s felt more acutely this particular day, this particular year. And surely in the years to come. A combustion is called for, a fiery furnace that re-ignites a four-decade dance with the muse, where I’ll melt, literally melt at two thousand degrees, forty years of molding my life through sculpture, the bronze flowing back into the world with a new agency and a new instruction:
To Begin…Again. Making this endeavor not so wishful thinking after all, but willed action as a blessing.
My favorite works, the ones that continue to sing of the deep mystery shall be spared. The rest, well, into the furnace they shall go, all the mediocrity, all the failures, and all the delusions of grandeur. Pouring all of it into forty bronze ingots that embody a lifetime of curiosity and exploration. Forty bronze ingots to be gifted to the next generation of sculptors who embrace the ancient magic of molten metal.
The furnace roars, my history recedes, and the dreams of another artist can…Begin.
Roger Colombik lives in the Texas Hill Country with his wife and artistic collaborator Jerolyn Bahm-Colombik. Born and raised in Chicago, the city’s monumental sculptural presence helped him to define an understanding of the relationship between the artist, the community, and public spaces. Colombik and his collaborator Jerolyn have several commissioned sculptural works that are featured across the state of Texas. These socially engaged projects are often undertaken in milieus where traditions and cultural heritage have collided head-on with westernization and government malfeasance. Rooted in the tradition of documentary studies, these projects utilize contemporary formats that include installation, large-scale photography, publications, and intervention. Fulbright Scholar Program, CEC Artslink and the Texas State University Research Program have supported these projects including work in Burma, Armenia, Republic of Georgia, Indonesia and Ecuador. In 2016, they developed a project in collaboration with International Rescue Committee – Abilene and The Grace Museum to examine issues of assimilation and citizenship for families resettling in Abilene from Congo, Burundi and Nepal.