Local sculptor Chuck Brush has been busy for the past several months getting his new musical instrument-based sculptures ready for their first public appearance at the Bayou City Art Festival in Memorial Park, March 28-30. Chuck has lived and worked in Spring Branch for the past 25 years, displaying his work at nationally juried art fairs from Miami to Scottsdale. He is most enthusiastic about this year's Houston event, however, saying it "promises to be the best yet." He adds, "Being able to stay at home and exhibit in the Bayou City Festival, a world class event, is quite a treat for me." Chuck attended California Polytechnic Institute and San Diego State College. He has entered various juried art fairs since 1983. At one time he was the owner and director of the Brush Gallery and director of the Frank Wood Gallery in the Galleria.

Brush's speciality is decorative and functional metalwork, welded and soldered from nonferrous metals, formed using jewelers and coach building methods. He says the design and execution of each piece is his own, with the exception of the bronze castings, which are lost wax, cast from his originals at an art foundry.

"My forms are usually slightly abstracted from nature, and occasionally greatly abstracted from organic natural forms," he says. Some of his art work consists of sculpted metal fountains with running water. "More recently I have been experimenting with the inclusion of kiln formed or cast glass elements, and musical instrument parts. I place particular emphasis on the enduring quality of my finishing, and to this end only natural chemical patinas are used. Bright colors come from the metals themselves including titanium, polished copper, and bronze."

Brush decided to use old musical instruments as a medium for his sculptured metal art because of the lower cost. "Copper and brass have become a really expensive medium to use in the scale I'm used to working at. Fortunately, I came across a quantity of scrap musical instruments which has lead me in an entirely new direction." Newly sculpted works, a deer and a fountain, have been created from instruments such as trombones, sousaphones, and trumpets. To see Chuck Brush's unusual art work, visit his exhibit at the Bayou City Art Festival.