Sculpting Life

Artistry revealed itself early in Alan Henderson’s life. As a child, he would reach over the counter as his mother baked, grabbing chunks of dough he molded into shapes. Henderson vividly remembers the first sculpture he ever made of clay; a pirate imbued from his innocent imaginative mind. “Even from a very young age, I would be doing drawings or I’d be making a model of plants,” he recalls. 

Through his education, he refined his craft and explored art forms within printmaking, illustration and painting, though there was one art form which captivated Henderson. “In art school, I would always end up in the sculpture studios,” he says of those years. 

His first sculptures were small bronze pieces featured in local galleries. Later, in creating large sculptures, he found meaning embedded within space. “Public work is great because you have a place to put it, and the place could give it meaning,” he explains.

A sculpture of Albert the Great located in St. Albert was Henderson’s first monumental commissioned piece. The sculpture was commissioned by The Continuous Learning Community (CLC) Society, an organization committed to upholding the value of lifelong learning. 

Henderson believes every monumental piece intrinsically exists within a certain time and place, embedded within the past, the present and the future. 

“With sculptures near the mountains, I want a sense of calm and mass,” he explains. “It should seem like a thing that has always been there, a work of art that has always been in that space. The space would be incomplete without it.”

Henderson’s most meaningful piece holds love within a moment in time. “It’s a clay portrait of my late wife that has never been fired or cast. It was on our honeymoon, I bought a bunch of clay and was doing a portrait of her up on Salt Spring Island. That will always have a soft spot in my heart…it never got finished.”

Henderson incorporates his understanding of life within his work, creating contemplative embodiments of life’s meaning. He explains that his art focuses on what’s behind the eyes, what’s beyond the surface. His art allows transcendental evocation, drowning the viewer within a moment in time with which the breath of life touches the essence of their own being. 

Henderson hopes his art provides a surface to touch, a tangible object giving meaning to our existence. “The most gratifying thing in this moment, and the one thing you need, is something to touch. You must touch some surface somewhere. Once you have that and you’re established, you have something. Your mind can settle. That’s what art can provide.” 

Above all else, Alan Henderson offers that the most satisfying thing is not to be totally satisfied. “Art promises something like a name for what is always just beyond our comprehension, and promises are lovely things.”