Sculpture & the Emotional Connection

Bren Sibilsky works on a sculpture in her studio.

When I pull up to Bren Sibilsky’s studio/gallery located a few miles west of Algoma’s historic downtown district, I can’t help but breathe a sigh of contentment. The interior roads of Kewaunee County are a soothing mixture of farms and fields, and Sibilsky’s artistic space is a converted barn, located in back of the farmhouse she shares with her husband Randy. The property, dotted with fences and grazing horses, has been in Randy’s family for generations. With this setting, it’s difficult to believe that the same artist who resides here is also the one who wins “Best of Show” awards for her work in the art-loving cities of Manhattan and Chicago.

Sibilsky was not only interested in art as a young child – she quickly found out that it was her best method of communication.

“I can’t remember a time in my childhood when I wasn’t interested in art,” she says. “When I was small, if I found that I couldn’t explain things to people, I would just draw them a picture.”

Drawing and painting quickly became her passions, and at age eight, upon seeing an advertisement for an arts program in a magazine, Sibilsky decided that she would ask her parents to send her to an art school rather than a regular school.

“My mom was interested in my artistic talent, but she wanted to make sure that I pursued something I could make a living with,” Sibilsky says. “She said art was a nice hobby to have, but that I should think about a career path that I could actually support myself with.”

When it came time to go to college, Sibilsky did not abandon her dream of attending art school, opting to leave her hometown of Green Bay and go to the prestigious Milwaukee School of Art & Design (MIAD). However, Sibilsky is quick to say that she intended to follow her mother’s advice and become a commercial artist.

“That way, I could still be in the art world and still maintain a sense of security – see how safe I was?” she laughs.

Bren Sibilsky was recently awarded “Best of Show” in sculpture for “Daedalus” in the Manhattan Arts International Show, “The Healing Power of Art 2010.”

Even though Sibilsky thought her decision was made, MIAD (formerly the Lawton School of Art) had other plans for her.

“MIAD didn’t allow you to pick a major until after your first year,” Sibilsky says. “They wanted you to experience all different kinds of mediums and then make the decision on what to study.” She found herself taking a sculpture class for a prerequisite, and to her surprise, had an instant knack for it.

“Have you ever had the feeling that you could do something well, even though you had never done it before? That’s how I felt about sculpture,” Sibilsky says. She points to a full-size bronze sculpture of a seated nude woman. “‘Eve’ was my final assignment in my third year of sculpture class at MIAD. My teacher was giving various options for a final project, and when he said the words ‘life size,’ I think my eyes were the widest they’d ever been. I just knew I could do it.”

The piece led to an “A” in the course, but Sibilsky also walked away with something greater: her professor, international sculptor Hanna Jubran, became her personal mentor for the rest of her college career.

“He saw that light in my eyes and as a result, gave a lot of his time and energy to me,” she says. “I was spoiled by his knowledge.”

Sibilsky graduated from MIAD in 1987 (still with a degree in Commerical Art), got married, and moved to Algoma where she proceeded to launch her career in Graphic Design. She worked in the area for about 15 years, save for the year she decided to move to Boulder, Colorado (“I wanted to live a romantic mountain life!” she laughs). Throughout her career, however, she found herself thinking about her sculpting classes and making a transition to doing what she truly loved.

Still, she didn’t look at visual art as a career move. “I didn’t think of being a full-time artist,” Sibilsky says, “I just wanted to take a break from the commercial side.”

Bren Sibilsky’s studio.

She began slowly, painting a few commission pieces before stepping back into the sculpture world. She began entering (and winning) juried art competitions in the Kewaunee and Door County area, eventually branching out into galleries and commission opportunities in larger cities. In 2005, she began teaching sculpting classes at the Kewaunee Academy of Fine Art and later the Peninsula School of Art.

Sibilsky’s curriculum vitae contains lines upon lines of awards and honors, but she says the one that still thrills her to this day when one of her life-size sculptures, Aphrodite, was selected to be part of the Art Renewal Center (ARC’s) 2006 Salon. The ARC Salon is a yearly international competition of contemporary realist artists.

“To flip through that exhibition catalog and see a photo of my work next to artists that I’ve studied – that was very exciting and humbling for me,” Sibilsky says. Recently, Sibilsky won the “Best in Show” award at the Manhattan Arts International Juried Show “Celebrate the Healing Power of Art 2010.”

Sibilsky says she works in a classical realist style with “emotional overtones” and says that her work reflects her interest in nature and realism.

“My sculptures are a study in understanding universal emotion,” she says. This is evidenced in pieces like “Africa,” which portrays a bust of an African man with a conflicted expression.

“Africa is the birthplace of mankind and has more resources than most places on the earth. So why is in that there is so much poverty and so much violence there? His face is wondering what the future of his country is.”

“Eve,” Sibilsky’s first life size sculpture from her MIAD days, tells another story. She explains, “It’s been said that all mankind came from a single woman. If we’re all related, why do we tend to make separations with one another, even though all of these studies show we’re so connected? I like to raise these kind of questions with my work.”

She’s also happy that she questioned herself when it came to her art and career. “I know it’s been said before, but if you do what you love, the rest will follow. And yes – part of the ‘rest’ includes making a living.”

Bren Sibilsky’s studio is located at E5977 Fremont Road in Algoma. To learn more about Bren Sibilsky’s work, visit her website at http://www.brensculpture.com.

Bren Sibilsky was recently awarded “Best of Show” in sculpture for “Daedalus” in the Manhattan Arts International show titled “The Healing Power of Art 2010.” The show received artwork from every continent and has over 50 winning artists. This year’s entry also recently received a Cultural Patriot Award from The P.I.C.T.U.R.E. Art Foundation in California.

“My artwork speaks of the awakening magical transformation of evolution,” said Sibilsky. “The timeless dance of nature, illustrated by human fragility, encompassed by our enduring strength to overcome and awaken to our truth.”

To view Sibilsky’s winning entry visit http://www.manhattanarts.com/Gallery/HealingPowerofArt_2010/index.htm. The online show will run thru September 19, 2010.