Michael Binkley Marble Sculpture of Female Torso
After 17 years, “Coy Glance” has finally found a home. Sometimes an artist has to wait a while before the right patron comes along.
I carved the sculpture in 1995 and Peter Bentley, then President and CEO of Canfor Corp., unveiled her at my Faces & Figures exhibition on Granville Island in October of that year. Since then, I have exhibited her extensively in Vancouver and though she has attracted much admiration, she stubbornly resisted finding a home. She clocked some handsome air miles, traveling to Miami, FL, where she was shown at Coral Gables International Art Gallery and at MAC Fine Art.
The sculpture is carved from a piece of calacatta marble, which is a variety of the beautiful white marble from the famous quarries above the town of Carrara, Italy. Originally, I had mounted her on a black, Spanish marble base, but over the years, a fissure developed in the stone, so I had to replace it. The new base is made from petacchi marble, a different variety of Carrara marble. It has a high gloss finish which is in contrast to the sculpture’s matte finish. The purpose of a matte finish allows the stone to best hold shadow and this enhances the subtle features of the art work which creates drama.
My favourite subject for my art is the human nude. However, as not everyone is comfortable with nudity, I developed a way to express the aspects of anatomy, but not make them blatantly obvious. In the early 1990’s, I began playing with female torsos that appeared to be wearing close-fitting evening gowns, and stylizing their heads to Brancusi-like, egg shaped forms. “Coy Glance” is one such piece. One can see and feel her shoulders, the swell of her breasts, the curve of her buttocks and thighs, and her hip bones.
The title describes her movement. As she sweeps into the room, she dips her shoulder alluringly and throws the viewer a coy, come-hither glance.
Her home is high above the West Vancouver seawall walk, overlooking English Bay, Vancouver, Canada. She stands as a focal point at the end of a long hallway, appropriately just outside the patrons’ master bedroom.