Moving Sculpture

By Thomas Weaver Vermont Quarterly Magazine Winter issue, Burlington, Vermont

George Sherwood ’84

For a sculpture truly completed by a gust of wind stirring it into motion, there are few better places to be than the Shelburne Farms lakeshore. On a late-September morning, a steady breeze off Lake Champlain sets George Sherwood’s “Botanica” rotating in slow, graceful arcs that bring to mind, say, the rhythmic arm strokes of a swimmer, a Renaissance courtship dance, or plants waving in the wind. But never mind the inevitable grasp for visual analogies, it is simply a beautiful form crafted in stainless steel. A guest at the annual “Envisioned in a Pastoral Setting” art show sees Sherwood standing near the sculpture and asks him if he is the artist. Her praise is effusive. “It’s liquid! Just liquid!”

The creative force has been central to most of George Sherwood’s life pursuits; the forms those pursuits have taken have a liquid flow of their own. Sherwood had a bachelor’s in fine arts from Hartford Art School and a keen interest in mime, juggling, and Mummenschanz-style performance when he first came to Burlington in the late 1970s.

He made his way with his one-man performing arts show, and also taught workshops at public schools and at UVM through Living/Learning. Sherwood’s performances involved large animated props, sculptures, and puppets controlled by his own body movements.

The design work behind his performances led Sherwood to begin envisioning a dream job in toy design. With that in mind, he returned to school at UVM to earn his second bachelor’s, this one in engineering. “It was always one of my dreams to have a big desk and anything at my disposal to create,” Sherwood says. Post-graduation, he quickly landed a job at Parker Brothers. The bulk of Sherwood’s career in the toy industry, though, was with LEGO, where he worked on projects such as the computerized LEGO set, “Mindstorms.”

Seeing a Whitney Museum exhibit of ground-breaking kinetic sculptor George Rickey’s work was an epiphinal moment for Sherwood and would drive his creativity in new directions. Standing at Shelburne Farms in a well-worn black Patagonia fleece and a pair of hiking shorts, Sherwood recalls the impact Rickey’s work had on him. “It struck me here,” he says, thumping his chest and staggering backward. “Very spiritually moving.”

Initial forays into kinetic sculpture in his home workshop, Sherwood admits, tended to collapse after two weeks outside. But his skill grew as his passion for the medium grew deeper. Soon he would cut back to part-time with his toy industry day job, then made the big leap to full-time artist. Sherwood, who lives in Ipswich, Massachusetts with his wife, Ruth McCabe Sherwood ’82, and their two daughters, traded a long commute into Boston for a short walk to the home studio and has never looked back.

George Rickey’s work remains a central inspiration. “He developed the language,” Sherwood says. “I’m just trying to add to the vocabulary.” Nature and weather are also fundamental sources for the artist, who grew up near Long Island Sound and learned to build boats and sail from his father. “I didn’t follow him with that full-on passion for sailing,” Sherwood says, “but I’m using the wind in a different way.”

Performer, engineer, toymaker, sailor, sculptor — there are many parts to George Sherwood and they all flow into his art. Looking over his piece “Square Wave,” he doesn’t pause long before answering a question about how much time goes into such a work. A guy who smiles easily and often, Sherwood smiles once more and says, “Fifty-one years.” (up^)

See the sculptor’s work at: georgesherwood.com.

—Thomas Weaver