Sculptural Mythology

Artist Ron Pippin shows his dream-like sculptures at antique and furnishing shop, Trove, in Laguna Beach.

With the presence of Ron Pippin’s formidable sculptures, Laguna Beach antique and furnishing shop Trove is suddenly transformed into a magical art gallery of esoteric symbolism, enchanted creatures, birds, animals, shiny metallic forms, and winged figures.

Arch Angel, dress form, leather, aluminum, found object, and mixed media by Ron Pippin at Trove.

The combination of exceptional art ensconced among rare furnishings makes it even more pleasurable to meander, discovering subtle features of one-of-a-kind works of art and objects. It’s akin to exploring the attic of an ancient castle. Pippin’s metaphorical assemblages, like the contents of Trove, do not deal with trends, but rather are concerned with lasting subjects human beings continually explore and appreciate. This explains why the art and the setting seem to resonate.

Pippin’s art is about the quest for meaning through our mythological history, described in a rich symbolic vocabulary the artist invents. Pippin collects and assembles all sorts of fragments and objects into anthropomorphic beings that are larger than the space they occupy and seemingly want to break out of limitations. Hence, there is a prevalence of luminous wings attached to archetypical animals and humans who seem to soar before our eyes.

Dante’s Deer, taxidermy form, mixed media, and fabric on wood base, by Ron Pippin at Trove.

Pippin’s dream-like, enigmatic sculptures – an assortment of intuitively-made fantasies – must be contemplated and savored. The work is based on his commitment to understanding and expressing life’s most essential and expansive issues – eternal stories of birth, life and death seen through his original art. Certainly, this is no easy task. Years of intense meditation have helped Pippin get in touch with the deepest of thoughts that continue to preoccupy religion, science, philosophy, and mythology. Meditation also allows him to set aside his personal self, analytic mind and critical eye to focus freely on the essence of each creative process. Although not a Buddhist or a follower of any religion, Pippin’s art leans toward the pensive mood of Eastern religions with its mysticism and contradictions, serenity of angels, power of demons, and a state of mind that is incomplete, imperfect and thus, endless.

Pippin lived in South America for a year and then in isolation in the Southern California desert. These intense experiences, with regular meditation, facilitated an access to profound imagery that continually deepens. Most artists create art of the here and now – that which is known and visible. Pippin’s images point us in the direction of other worldliness – what is known, but not seen. With this vast scope of non-dimensional subject matter, the artist’s impressive assemblages become human mythology in a new form. They are based on the interrelationship of humans, animals, nature and the enormous cosmos in which we exist. Rarely does Orange County see both art of such quality and visceral appeal.

FOR MORE INFORMATION What The sculptures of Ron Pippin When Ongoing Where Trove, 1233 N. Coast Hwy., Laguna Beach, (949) 376-4640; www.trovelaguna.com

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