Dan Raynor

We are pleased to present three sculptures by the late Dan Raynor, on view in the landscape at the Wallkill River Center for the Arts.  Works are viewable from the flagstone path around the Patchett House.  The public is welcome to visit during gallery hours, Friday, Saturday and Sunday 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Artist’s Statement

A piece of bent metal can have as much power as a swirling brushstroke of color.

This sculpture assemblage work is like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle without first looking at the picture on the box.

As a piece of sculpture tumbles over the mid-point toward completion, it hits a climax.  I like to keep a piece around in that state – unfinished- so that I can prepare for its completion within me.

A big lie can be hidden behind a few words, but when I reduce something three dimensionally and expose it to its bones, the smallest fib shows.  Building three dimensions around an armature of lies doesn’t work either.

 Biography

Daniel Jay Raynor was born on May 17, 1946 in Warwick, NY and died in a motorcycle accident on April 29, 1984.  Over 200 pieces of sculpture remain as his legacy.

Dan majored in Fine Arts at Alfred University where his work developed under Robert Turner, a professor in sculpture.  From 1966  through 1969 Dan served in the U.S. Army in Germany and following his discharge, he and his wife Allison traveled in Europe for one year.  Returning to his hometown of Warwick in the fall of 1970, Dan took up welding as his chosen art form, influenced strongly at this time by David Smith, the mid-Hudson metal sculptor.

Humor was the hallmark of Dan’s work.  Using found objects as building blocks, he instilled the joy of childhood play into his pieces.  He loved taking unrelated shapes and textures and juxtaposing them, after laying them on the studio floor and moving them around until they melded into an integrated whole.  Dan himself was often amazed at how effortlessly, how naturally his works came together.  Dan found it particularly amusing that his creations were formed from society’s junk.

Dan also worked in bronze, brass, iron and steel rods and mild steel.  He used spider webs, calligraphy, geology and all natures forms together with an amazing imagination as inspiration for his designs.  His sculptures are imbued with his joy of life.