Michael Reddell

The Obispo Town Musicians

The SLO Public Market at Bonetti Ranch is nearing completion. Michael has been commissioned for the public art feature, entitled “The Obispo Town Musicians.” It is modeled after the Grimm’s fairytale, “The Bremen Town Musicians.” The black and white image here is the maquette. The work is complete, and awaiting installation when the site is ready.

Below is a video rendering of the Long-Bonnetti Ranch project that was created early in design. The art feature did not make it into the video but the very first image in the video includes a planter at the left of the screen with an oak tree in it. You can see the planter and tree again if you pause at the 1:25 mark and again briefly at 1:35 and 2:46. That oak tree will not be there. In it’s place will be the Obispo Town Musicians. The piece will be approximately 12 feet tall and elevated about eighteen inches above the surrounding walkways in a raised planter bed. It will be surrounded by mature, closely spaced lavender within a split rail fence to discourage small children from climbing.

You can find more info about the project at http://www.tenoverstudio.com/bonetti-ranch/   The project is located at Tank Farm Road and South Higuera Street in San Luis Obispo, CA.

Video: America the Promise

“America, the Promise featuring Michael’s work. From Randy Allen for Studios on the Park.

Studios on the Park: America – The Promise

Through November 19 in the atrium at Studios on the Park in Paso Robles CA.
This is a group show curated by WB Eckert.

Something About Art

“Something about Art” Episode #2 featuring Michael. From Michael Souza on Vimeo.

Tam’s Dream

Can be seen at
Good Earth Natural Foods
201 Flamingo Road, Mill Valley, CA
genatural.com

An enlarged variation of the flying lady you see in the gallery above. She is seven feet nine inches long from toes to nose with a seven foot wing span. The original it was patterned after is six feet long. She is suspended sixteen feet off the ground in a thirty two foot high cupola near the cash registers.

Biography

Michael was born in Oklahoma. His parents had a nomadic streak, which meant that he lived in 10 cities and 15 houses from Texas to Washington state and California by the time he reached high school.

Art was always a factor, and his native talents were recognized early. By the high school years he knew that making art, and especially three dimensional art, was intrinsic to his place in the world.

The late sixties—the cultural revolution embodied in that time, the music, the expansive openness, the hope of real transformation—all of these, in concert with his Gypsy caravan childhood, are the formative context of Michael’s conceptual framework, and for his art and his vision. But for 30 years, art was not at center stage. A growing family, jobs in newspaper, welding, and technical writing, and a bachelors degree in theoretical linguistics at the University of Washington kept him busy, and fleshed out the context and skill set that now informs his work.

In 2002, Michael moved to San Luis Obispo with his wife, Peggy Sonoda, to take up the life of a sculptor full time. Michael’s studio is in the hills east of Cambria.

From 2011 to 2014, Michael was the president of the Central Coast Sculptors’ Group at San Luis Obispo Museum of Art. He was also a board member at the Museum from 2013 to 2015, and was the instigator and driving force behind the Phantom Project, which was a loose coalition of artists who launched pop up gallery shows in vacant retail space around San Luis Obispo County in 2012. He has also participated in the selection of public art in the county, has juried for the Paso Robles Art Association, and is focused on exposing the community to more art wherever possible.

Michael’s focus is currently on public and semipublic figurative sculptural installations for natural, urban and commercial environments.

Artist’s Statement

“Most of my practice over the years has involved fire and force and mythos. I explore the physical energy that expresses humanity. I’ve been obsessed with the power of the human figure for way too long to call it a simple infatuation. The human body is it. It speaks my language and I talk back.

“My current work is life scale and larger. My focus is on permanent placements in locations viewable by significant numbers of people—public, natural, retail, and corporate environments.”

Facts & Details

Exhibits

• Arts Obispo popup show, March 2018, San Luis Obispo, CA.
• Phantom Project 9. Group show: Drawing and Sculpture, January 2018, The Phantom Gallery, San Luis Obispo, CA.
• America: The Promise. Group show. November 2017, Studios on the Park, Paso Robles, CA.
• “Three Part Harmony. ” A three person exhibit with Colleen Gnos and Larry Lebrane, August 2017, Studios on the Park, Paso Robles, CA.
• Studios on the Park, Paso Robles, CA, 2014.
• McMeen Gallery, San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, San Luis Obispo, CA.
  Four group shows from 2010 to 2013
  Two person show with Lucie Ryan, Spring, 2011
• Cambria Center for the Arts exhibits, Cambria, CA
  Summer of 2012—Honorable Mention,
  Fall of 2012,
  Summer of 2011—First Place
• Phantom Project exhibits, San Luis Obispo County
  January 2012,
  May 2012—Two Honorable Mentions
• 3rd annual Santa Barbara Sculptors’ Guild winter show
  Faulkner Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA, Spring, 2010
• Presentation at Pecha Kucha night at the Steynberg Gallery,San Luis Obispo, CA. December 2010.
• Hearts Obispo 4
  Arts Obispo, San Luis Obispo, CA, Winter, 2010

From 2014 to 2017  there was an hiatus from exhibiting to refine and develop the current work in steel wire.

Projects and Innovations

• Founder and director of the Phantom Project, orchestrating pop-up exhibitions around San Luis Obispo County.
• Former publisher of Outside the Lines, a weekly email publication for artists and other creative people seeking to make a lifestyle around their craft. Publication ran from October 2011 to April 2013.
• Orchestration and management for California Slam, a biennial juried exhibition that surveys current directions in California sculpture. (Three exhibits so far)
• Assistant curator for two shows at Allied Arts of Cambria, 2011 and 2012.
• Juror for a 2014 exhibit for the Paso Robles Art Association.
• Juror for the selection of a public art installation in Paso Robles in 2012.

Work In Progress

The focus has moved away from temporary exhibitions and into permanent public and semi-public settings. Currently there are a number of projects under development. As they roll out, you can see them in Seen in Public.

Education

• Bachelor’s Degree, University of Washington
• Seminars and Coursework in Sculpture, 3-D design, ceramics, drawing, creativity at Seattle Central Community College, Gavillan College, Cabrillo College, Cuesta College, UC Santa Cruz Extension, UCLA Extension

Affiliations

• Arts Obispo (member)
• San Luis Obispo Museum of Art (former board member)
• Central Coast Sculptors’ Group (former president)