Charles C. Dean

Raised in New York and then Detroit, my “career” was in car design with General Motors: initially as a Designing Sculptor and later as a Project Manager. I attended graduate school in Sculpture at Wayne State University and like many of my Artist peers in the styling studios, I produced and exhibited my work which also included photography. Both my sculpture and photography interests will be depicted and described in further detail as you peruse the web-site. I trust you will find the diversity of it all interesting. Thank you for your time and interest.

My Expertise

Artist Statement About Photography and Sculpture

Photography

I am a Fine Artist by training and inclination and a self-taught photographer. My initial interest was macro-photography: capturing close up images of natural textures and compositions offered by nature, such as, very small geode slices, melting ice and reeds, blowing sand and grasses, or, perhaps, man made objects being reclaimed by nature. They are influenced compositionally by Japanese prints, British landscape paintings and the Abstract Expressionists. The landscape also caught my eye eventually, most importantly, the upper Mississippi Valley, often using vintage large format cameras. And, more recently, I like what I see in Florida: a very different world, where clouds can rule. My latest discovery is called “Devolution”, which are actual photographs taken over several months from a TV screen which was behaving badly, which got its signal from an old satellite dish. Pay attention to these.

Sculpture

My earlier work was direct carving of black walnut wood and Michigan alabaster, often in an abstract figurative manner. My “Igneous” series was of Michigan alabaster that looked “melted” having very smooth and refined surfaces. (This “melting” theme I later pursued with hand-built earthen clay.) I also created larger welded steel works. Well, raising a family had me doing more photography and less sculpture for some time. And then I discovered the wonders of earthen clay (which was a natural progression from a plasticine type clay I used in car design) at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis and later at Pewabic Pottery in Detroit. I started with “hand building”; creating all manner of unique sculpture styles and themes. After moving to Saint Petersburg, I took a Mural Class at The Morean Clay Center with the aim to somehow work my photographic images with a high-fired clay in a bas-relief style. That has been my most serious focus lately: photographic images taken of the upper Mississippi Valley called the Driftless Region: both landscapes and details of ancient rusting relics of the farm. These are ongoing as are my functional “hammer-formed” bowls and plates. And, I’ve experimented with a few quirky “igneous” forms and a Talon and Tusk or two. I trust you will find them of interest. I am fortunate to have a studio with my wife, Elle Leonard Dean who founded Architectural Ceramics in Sarasota. We have collaborated on several large-scale projects, whereby I contribute my clay modeling talents.

Featured Projects

View Various Aspects of My Portfolio

Minor Details

I seek to capture with my cameras natural phenomenon, often very close-up, that mostly goes unnoticed in our normal lives. These photographs are inspired by Abstract Expressionists paintings and historical Japanese drawings. I recall the immediate brushstrokes of, say, Franz Kline with his dynamic and bold compositions, along with the delicacy of Japanese drawings when I capture a still-life image with my cameras. Often there is a good deal of negative space, such as snow, sand or sky that yields a drawing quality.

With "Architectural Ceramics"

In partnership with Elle Leonard Dean. These are large scale, site specific installations for private and public customers. To see more, go to elleterryleonard.com.

Functional Hand-Forged Tableware

These bowls/plates/cups are formed upside-down over a plaster “hump mold”. A clay slab is draped over it and my fingertips taper the thickness down over the mold as a metalsmith might hammer a metal shape over an anvil. Each piece is unique: the final edge not being predetermined. The glaze is a three step process that further adds variability.

Experimental

I had become captivated by the beauty I happened to see one day in small geode slices; that what I was seeing were abstract microcosms of earthly images: of oceans and landscapes. I bought my first camera, a Minolta with a macro lens with the aim of shooting slides and projecting them on a large screen with music for a rather psychedelic experience. Then came darkroom experiments sandwiching a color slide with a high-contrast black and white negative, and so on. Eventually, some were framed and exhibited.

Driftless

These are photographs taken near the upper Mississippi called the “Driftless Region”, an area in SW Wisconsin, NE Illinois and NE Iowa, that somehow last glaciers passed it by and is marked by beautiful rolling farmland and rocky limestone palisades. German and Norwegian farming techniques added to the beauty of the area.The black and white ones were taken with vintage 35mm and 21⁄4 film cameras; the color are either digital or film cameras.

Ceramic Bas-Relief Murals

These were inspired by photographs taken over many years from my time spent in Galena, Illinois while restoring a historic home there. With my sculpture background I was able to meld the two disciplines together at Morean Clay Center. The curious textures employed are from found objects such as peach pits and shells/debris found on the beach.