Christopher Hecker Sculpture

(Aug. 5, 2010) -- Christopher Hecker, a sculptor and his wife, Rachel Smith Hecker, a writer, will unveil "Life Portraits: Laura, Troy, Aztechan" today at PlatteForum in Riverfront Park, situated at the base of Millennium Bridge in downtown .

"Life Portraits: Laura, Troy, Aztechan" is part of the joint Biennial Exhibition titled, "Here at Home: 6 Artists," which opens today at 3 p.m. and was produced by PlatteForum and Lighthouse Writers Workshop. The exhibition will continue through August 27.

As part of the month-long cultural celebration of the Biennial of Americas, Christopher and Rachel collaborated to create "Life Portraits," a sweeping artistic creation comprised of Rachel's written record and Christopher's abstract sculptures. To begin, the two artists met with and listened to several life stories from the community before finding raw inspiration in the three stirring narratives of Laura, Troy and Aztechan. Rachel then distilled each story into fourteen verses, and Christopher used the writing as a blueprint for his abstract sculptures. Each narrative and sculptural portrait will be installed in its own room.

"Typically, portraits were done for the rich and famous and would capture only a snapshot of the person. We wanted to encapsulate the entire life of a regular person - what creates and defines them." said Christopher. "It was an invigorating challenge to abstractly represent someone's life. I tried to step aside and let the story dictate the style."

The PlatteForum residency was awarded to six local artists: Tei Kobayashi, David Oceluti Garcia, Tsehai Johnson, Carla Lopez Lee, and Christopher and Rachel Hecker.

"It's an exciting opportunity for a variety of different communities to come together and explore these themes," said Judy Anderson, executive director of PlatteForum. "Not only have the artists embarked on the creative process as a group, but each artist has engaged the community at large for inspiration."

A Colorado native, Christopher Hecker recently moved back to after spending time absorbing and influencing the Los Angeles artist community. Before that, he studied sculpture in Serravezza, Italy, where he apprenticed under master sculptors Nicolas Bertoux and Cynthia Sah. Now that he has returned to the state in which he grew up, Christopher has increased his focus on enhancing his own community through art.

"The human spirit is an unending resource for inspiration. What better way to celebrate a community than to honor the people that inhabit it," Hecker said. In addition to his PlatteForum work, Hecker also recently created a piece for the Bike Sharing initiative, which is located at the Bike Sharing headquarters at 2737 Larimer Street.