Introducing Charles Forrester, Sculptor
Welcome to our first blog post about the gifted sculptor, Charles H. Forrester (1928-2010)
If you’re reading this, you may already have a connection with Charles Howard Forrester, perhaps you’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest, New York, the Southern United States or even England and Europe - all places he lived and worked. As a teacher for almost thirty years and a working sculptor for six decades, he influenced generations of students and artists during his lifetime.
Forrester left his unique imprint on this world — his artwork captures a multitude of mediums and styles over his long career. Constantly experimenting, his creativity produced his more well-known monumental concrete outdoor sculptures, masterfully engineered wire suspension and smaller playfully abstract wood and bronze works. His meticulous records show he created over 550 works of art, with the majority held in private collections or constructed as public art.
The Forrester family art collection holds the remaining sculptures, including paintings, drawings and his journals. If you haven’t seen his work before, visit our website at www.charlesforrester.com to view some gorgeous photos of his artwork.
The award-winning short documentary film, A Line Unbroken: The Charles Forrester Story spans his life from the early bohemian years, his time as a university professor and final years as an artist, all the while showcasing his innovative work. The film won Best Inspirational Film award at the Top Shorts Film Festival and will premier in the fall of 2020.
The film has been submitted for consideration in various film festivals across the United States and England, and was directed and produced by David and Patricia Earnhardt of Earnhardt Films, LLC of Nashville, Tennessee. View the documentary trailer below:
Insight into Charles Forrester’s life and art work…
“Charles Forrester's story is inspiring, he was such a unique artist. Good interviews… the film was very well edited, keeping the viewer intrigued throughout.” Top Shorts Film Festival
“Having a conversation with my father was a mind-opening experience. He viewed the world differently. If you’d just be driving down the road and he looked out the window, and you looked out the window, he saw something different… Everything he did, and everywhere he looked, he was looking for ideas about sculpture and art. He lived, breathed, and thought about making artwork, all the time”. Winifred Forrester
“Forrester’s work [the Equestrian statue in Springfield, Oregon, 1959] has become part of the fabric of the community and has endured the test of time.“ Caroline Phillips, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon
“He was meticulous in his planning and engineering from the very beginning… all the way to the finished surface. I never knew if Chuck was an engineer stuck in a sculptor’s body or a sculptor stuck in an engineer’s mind. But they always intermingled.” - Russ Faxon, Sculptor, Bell Buckle, Tennessee
“Charles Forrester was without a doubt, a fox – clever, creative, curious, and constantly crafting analogies between things, a master of the visual pun” - Guy Jordan, Western Kentucky University Art Historian
“I didn’t know Charles Forrester face to face, but as artists, we’re connected through almost an unbroken line. I know him. I just never met him.” - Kristina Arnold, Western Kentucky University Art Department Head