Metal Sculpture Artist, Northern California
About
John Martin Streeby
Artist’s Statement:
I approach my work as a writer would approach a new story or poem. In the beginning, I acquaint myself with the separate elements that are available to me, each element possessing its own individual character. Secondly, I place the first piece from which each successive piece must grow. Then, slowly, through familiarity, the remaining elements change, not in their form but in their identity. And they begin to fall into place, to relate to one another and to the composition as a whole. Then they take on a larger meaning or form which is recognizable as such and as a self of its own.
Artist’s Bio:
John Martin Streeby was born in 1951 in Sioux City, Iowa. At that time a small cow town on the western border of the state, Sioux City was also a one time jumping off point for the westward migration. It was a place that encouraged exploration and a spirit of adventure. So, it was no surprise that when that spirit led him to Viet Nam in 1971 where, for a year, he worked as a surgical technician in a mash hospital near the northern provincial capital of Hue.
When he returned home he began to express what he had seen through the language of poetry. He attended Iowa State University where he developed an interest in horses. He continued to write while working in the horse industry for the next fifteen years. During that time he attended horseshoeing school and through horseshoeing became acquainted with a group of artist blacksmiths and although he continued to write, from that time on his focus now was on the language of sculpture as a means of expression.
By 1998 he had moved with his family to Redding and in 1999 he was awarded his first public contract with the city of Redding’s newly formed Art in Public Places program. His work now includes installations for Coleman National Fish Hatchery, Cal Trans and the City of Redding as well as large scale sculptures for local businesses and private residences. He creates both figurative installations and abstract pieces which are strongly suggestive of motion, vitality, growth and continuity providing a dynamic intercourse between viewer, sculpture and place.