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Ojimbo's Monsterpieces
Ohio artist carves blood, sweat, and fears
When Seattle alternative art space Roq La Rue Gallery was booking for October, it landed the perfect ambassador for the Halloween season in artist/carver Ojimbo. Based in Columbus, Ohio, Ojimbo (aka Jim Sheely), creates wooden relief and freestanding sculptures that mix classic horror/sideshow imagery (scary clowns, deformed animal characters, and other macabre themes) with lowbrow/pop surrealism flare.
The duality of Ojimbo's creations reminds me, at times, of influential California ceramic sculptor Robert Arneson. While some of his work is fanciful to the point of being decorative (as the relief pictured above: Outlaw Ogre and the Origami Ostrich), most of it is imaginatively provocative — and a little disturbed. Raw and dangling eyeballs are prevalent as are bones, skulls, and fleshy manifestations of otherworldly creatures. One wonders what Sheely and his family (he's married with two kids) talk about over Cheerios in the morning.
Ojimbo will be exhibiting through the rest of the month at Roq La Rue in a dual show with Japanese painter Yumiko Kayukawa. Both artists' work can be viewed on the gallery's website. Take a peek, but don't stare at the diseased-looking bear puppet in Ojimbo's "The Possessed One" for too long. It'll be back to haunt you once the lights go out.
Wendy Case is the MOLI View's contributing editor for Arts & Entertainment.
The duality of Ojimbo's creations reminds me, at times, of influential California ceramic sculptor Robert Arneson. While some of his work is fanciful to the point of being decorative (as the relief pictured above: Outlaw Ogre and the Origami Ostrich), most of it is imaginatively provocative — and a little disturbed. Raw and dangling eyeballs are prevalent as are bones, skulls, and fleshy manifestations of otherworldly creatures. One wonders what Sheely and his family (he's married with two kids) talk about over Cheerios in the morning.
Ojimbo will be exhibiting through the rest of the month at Roq La Rue in a dual show with Japanese painter Yumiko Kayukawa. Both artists' work can be viewed on the gallery's website. Take a peek, but don't stare at the diseased-looking bear puppet in Ojimbo's "The Possessed One" for too long. It'll be back to haunt you once the lights go out.
Wendy Case is the MOLI View's contributing editor for Arts & Entertainment.
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