Coker Master Sculptor Program

Sculpture StudioSupported by a generous gift from Joan Sasser Coker of Hartsville, South Carolina, three distinguished artists have been honored as the 2008 Coker Master Sculptors. These sculptors will be artists in residence, will teach sculpture workshops, and present public programs at Brookgreen Gardens. Coker Master Sculptors are selected by invitation each year.

April 13-27: Martha Griffin, Seaford, DE

Martha Griffin began her art studies at Virginia Commonwealth University then moved to New York City where she studied drawing at the Art Students League and sculpture at the National Academy of Design. In 1978, she embarked on a two-year period of study in Italy, learning stone carving in Carrara and Pietrasanta. She returned to Delaware and established studios for sculpture and printmaking. Her recent focus in sculpture has been wood carving, in the round and in relief, where she first creates a drawing then a clay model to use as a reference for the carving. She is represented in various galleries on the East Coast and has won many awards including the Individual Artists Fellowship from the Delaware State Arts Council, and the Gold Medal of Honor and the Harriet W. Frishmuth Memorial Award for Sculpture of the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club in New York City. She is on the faculty of Anne Arundel Community College in Annapolis, MD.

September 27-October 12: John Sisko, Seattle, WA

After studying art for many years and learning how to model sculpture, make molds, and cast in bronze, John Sisko decided to focus on a degree in philosophy in order to acquire the depth of intellectual, spiritual and philosophical training that he needed to portray his art. Movement, gesture, and intentional distortion of proportion characterize his figurative works. John Sisko is an elected member of the National Sculpture Society and serves on the editorial board of its magazine, Sculpture Review . Prior to election, he was awarded the Society's annual Alex J. Ettl Grant for a distinguished body of work by a non-member artist. His work is in many public and corporate collections including that of Bellingham Market Square, Island County Courthouse, and the Woodland Park Zoo. He is an instructor at the Seattle Academy of Fine Art and is represented in galleries in San Francisco, Santa Fe, Seattle, and other Washington locations.

October 14-28: Doug Hyde, Prescott, AZ

Of Nez Perce, Assiniboine, and Chippewa ancestry, Doug Hyde attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe under the tutelage of Allan Houser. He also studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, but left to enlist in the US Army and serve two tours of duty in Viet Nam. During recuperation after receiving a grenade wound, he learned the use of power tools in working with stone. Returning to Santa Fe, he taught at the Institute of American Indian Arts to absorb other Native American cultures then devoted himself fulltime to sculpting. His sculptures in stone and bronze often depict the stories told to him in his youth or portray historic events. His work is in the collections of the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Heard Museum, Museum of the Southwest, Gilcrease Museum, and Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art, among others. He is a Fellow of the National Sculpture Society.