Best known for his music research, teaching, and performing, Dr. Edwin E. Gordon is now entering a new frontier of his artistic career with the premise of himself as a visual artist who has quietly been producing wood sculptures and multi-media wall hangings for the past two decades.

Fifteen wall hangings by Dr. Gordon are currently on display in the Music Library and are available for purchase directly from Dr. Gordon: eegordon@gwm.sc.edu. Proceeds benefit the Edwin E. Gordon Archive in the University of South Carolina Music Library.

Click images for larger view.

Anonymous 106 Mixed media 2 x 2 ft.	Earth From Afar Mixed media 1 x 1 ft.
Grey Goose Mixed media 2 x 2 ft.	Horizon Mixed media 2 x 2 ft.
Ledger Lines Mixed media 1 x 1 ft.	Magnificat 3 Mixed media 2 x 2 ft.
Magnificat 4 Mixed media 2 x 2 ft.	Opus V Mixed media 2 x 2 ft.
Sleet Storm Mixed media 2 x 2 ft.	Teahouse Mixed media 1 x 1 ft.

Sonata Mixed media 1 x 4 ft.

Aerial View Mixed media 2 x 1 ft.	Bathsheba II Mixed media 2 x 1 ft.
Point Counterpoint Mixed media 4 x 1 ft.	Sanctus Mixed media 2 x 1 ft.
Unnamed Mixed media 4 x 2 ft.

Born September 14, 1927 in Stamford, Connecticut, Gordon has engaged in a life-long relationship with the arts, music being primary. During his adolescent years, Gordon worked in his father's business, Stamford Awning Works. Knowing early on he did not desire to engage a lifetime in manufacturing awnings, Gordon began to expose himself to other means of fulfillment. At the age of fifteen he recieved his first music lessons, arranged by his father as a distraction from the beginnings of an actively curious adolescence following his mother's untimely passing. Gordon's instrument of choice was the string bass, and during the 1950's, Gordon emerged primarily as a jazz musician, traveling with the band of the noted drummer, Gene Krupa.

After a stint in the army, Gordon entered college. He credits his professional progress to the influence of key individuals throughout his life who guided him in becoming a noted music psychologist and early childhood music educator and researcher. He has authored more than 25 books and several music aptitude and achievement tests, having attained undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Ohio University, and a PhD from the University of Iowa.

As Gordon advanced in professorial teaching and research, his creative energy did not diminish, refinishing furniture being his initial endeavor. In 1992, while holding the Carl E. Seashore research chair at Temple University, he tried his hand at sculpting. This gesture launched a ten-year period of creating wood sculptures. When he was not teaching, researching, or performing, Gordon says, "wood sculpting afforded me the opportunity to slight reality and indulge in imagination.... I captured space and crystallized movement." Gordon sees parallels between his sculpting and music performance. "In jazz bass playing, I follow the chord progressions, and in sculpting, I follow the grain of the wood as I chip and sand in a unique mixture of finishing-oil."

Although wood was the medium setting in motion his visual arts pursuits, in 2000 an arm injury necessitated a halt to sculpting. This interruption did not last long. Since that time, Gordon has been working two dimensionally with abstract multi-media works in which he applies concepts of improvisation so deeply imbedded in his artistic spirit. The 2-D works are minimal and geometric, adding monochromatic and colorful paint to various materials, such as plaster, wire, cord, and earth-material. Amid this activity, Gordon continues to travel regularly in the United States, Canada, and throughout the world disseminating his research and presenting lectures and seminars in Music Learning Theory, Audiation, and Music Aptitude. In 2007, in addition to seminars in New York and Michigan, he is scheduled to teach in Portugal, Germany, Italy, and China.

Gordon resides in Columbia, South Carolina, with his wife, Carol.

For additional information about the exhibit, the Gordon Archive, or the Music Library, contact Jennifer Ottervik at ottervikj@gwm.sc.edu, or 803-777-5139.