Sculptor Mike Leckie's quirky personality shines through

Mike Leckie just wants you to feel good about his art. That, anyway, was what he was saying Friday night at Maude Kerns Art Center, where the first substantial show of his work in several years opened with a wine and cheese reception and a live band. Leckie, who calls himself a "recluse," lives on rural property outside Eugene and seldom ventures into the limelight. But here he was, wine glass in hand, explaining the smooth tabletop-sized figurative sculpture that filled a gallery at Maude's.

He is fond of depicting men's and women's athletic bodies and does them with anatomical precision, but without disclosing much in the way of real-world sweat and grime. "When artists do things that are their own personal traumas and nightmares, that's OK," he said. "But why make the public deal with it?"

That's not quite to say that Leckie's work is the three-dimensional equivalent of easy-listening music. It's polished, yes, but beneath the patina lurks a quirky personality - perhaps best exemplified by the epigrams he attaches to each statue. "She focuses an uncertain future with strength of spirit," he writes with "Facing the Wind," a 1985 bronze of a slender female nude. Or this: "Arms raised in triumph, a personal moment," which he writes of "Victory," a female figure he carved out of Portuguese marble in 2001.

Perhaps the oddest, and thus most appealing, piece in the show is "Fertility," a marble carving from 1995. Leckie writes: "A lovingly full, pudgy angel dances in celebration of spring." This angel is not just pudgy but wonderfully fat, an overweight adult angel in place of the roly-poly cherubs you so often see. She's an Irving Penn nude in a room full of borderline anorexics.

Leckie loves the carving process. Marble is tough and dangerous. One slip and the work is gravel. "It's very physically demanding to carve," he said. "It's hard to do. But it's also mentally demanding, because you make one mistake and it's over." More recent pieces in the show are made from sand-cast glass.

Leckie studied metalsmithing at Oregon State University, where he graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in 1973. He has also studied art at Instituto Allende in Guanajuato, Mexico; at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; at California State University, Long Beach; and at the University of Oregon. He has previously exhibited around town at the now-defunct Robert Canaga Gallery, the Alder Gallery, Goldworks and at the Jacobs Gallery.

Jan. 18, 2004