We see in three dimensions, yet so much of what we strongly think of as art has only two dimensions, tall and wide. I am, of course, referring to paintings and technically, even paintings can have the third dimension of depth. This would be the depth in paint as with thick oils where the brush or pallet knife leaves highs and lows in the paint, texture if you will. Also looking at the overall piece, the frame or canvas stretchers add a dimension of depth as well, but what truly separates three dimensional art from the two dimensional in my opinion, is that its intention is for it to have the ability to be viewed from all sides.

Most three dimensional art is simply known as sculpture and may imply something that has been sculpted, as from clay for example. I believe today sculpture has been generally defined as a three dimensional artistic expression. These artistic expressions are as varied as any form of art you can find.

Subjects of realism, be it wildlife, people, horses, history, pets, transportation, are all explored. There is no shortage of abstract subjects as well, which explore form and structure.

What all of these expressions of art do that paintings can not, is catch light and drop shadows. Think about it, the earliest way we kept time was with a sundial and as you know the way it worked was sunlight on a rod and its moving shadow was cast on to a marked surface that would indicate the time. One of the ways our eye sees dimension is through light and shadow. Painting that light and shadow is what can give a painting its perception of depth, but that light and those shadows, are an illusion and are frozen in time. Whereas with sculpture, it's three dimensions are real and are constantly in play with the changing light around it, thus always changing themselves.

Like paintings which can be in oil, acrylic and so forth, sculpture has an amazingly wide range of substances to be made from. Marble certainly may be most notable for the old masters and today clay cast into bronze is certainly popular, but then there's welded steel, alloys, iron and other metals. Glass and plastics or limestone, granite and wood. Through history there has been ivory, jade and the list goes on, all with a different look and all with a different feel and feel can be a big part of sculpture. That's right, many collectors like to touch them, they have curves and lines, edges and depending on the materials just listed, can be soothing or interesting to the hand and mind. Textured surfaces can affect the feel, but also are much more effected by light hitting them than smooth or polished substances.

The other interesting thing about sculpture is much of it, because of the materials chosen, can do just fine inside or out, which opens new worlds for collectors. Inside sculpture especially in tandem with two dimensional works of art, can bring continuity to a room. They can bring interest to otherwise uninteresting spots, soften corners, make light through a window come alive, but then when your space becomes full, you can open the door and move onto to patio and out into the garden. How's that for being flexible?

All the same rules apply when purchasing sculpture and as you know much of that with me means there really art not any rules, it's art. Some helpful guidelines though would be, look for what moves you first. Look at it from more than one angle or side. Think of the piece in a spacial sense and by all means look at how light effects it. Like paintings, sculpture can be emotional and controversial, but certainly fun and like paintings, you can start small if you wish. Enjoy!