CAMBRIDGE— When Sondra Jonson tells far-flung
art patrons where she lives, they might assume she means Massachusetts.
Certainly the home of Harvard University would
seem a logical place for a classically trained sculptor to create
her art .
But Jonson works and lives in the other Cambridge,
the one with 1,041 residents about 1,300 miles west of Harvard. In
fact, it wasn't until she moved to her little town nearly a decade
ago that her art career took off.
“Who is inspired in the middle of a city,
where there's traffic jams and people are hasty and smog?” she
said. “That can't be conducive to creative inspiration.”
She would know. She's a native of Philadelphia.
Before moving to Cambridge she lived in Las Vegas, which proudly claims
to be the fastest-growing city in the United States.
“After living in cities all my life, I
really wanted to live in a small town,” she said.
It's a decision she has yet to regret.
In Cambridge, she bought the house next door
to her family's home to use as a studio. She spends her days crafting
sculptures she hopes will age as well as the century-old house that
is her studio.
Jonson's work has come into public view in
recent years. Art followers from Omaha to Cambridge can see her handiwork
on permanent exhibition.
“I think Sondra has done an extraordinary
job,” said Suzanne Wise, executive director of the Nebraska Arts
Council. “She's also done a good job of marketing herself.”
Proof can be seen in the fact that collectors
far from Nebraska have recognized her talent. For example, she recently
completed a dramatic, life-size sculpture of Jesus Christ on the cross
titled “I Thirst,” for a church
in Perry, Fla.
While she has done many smaller commissions
in her career—sculptures that could fit on a coffee table—she
most enjoys producing monuments.
“Outdoor sculpture is so cool,” she
said. “You can go up to it and touch it and check it out.”
As a girl growing up in Philadelphia, checking
out art was a routine family activity. Her parents, George and Norma
Wohl, both physicians, took her to art museums and galleries before
she could walk.
Being immersed in art at such an early age
gave her an appreciation for classics. Donald De Lue, Rodin, Michelangelo
and Matthias Grunewald remain her greatest influences.
After high school, she studied at Bryn Mawr
College, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and Frudakis Academy
of Art in Philadelphia.
She practiced several media, but she was most
interested in the human form as a subject. EvAngelos Frudakis said
in order to best follow that interest, she should learn to sculpt.
Eighteen years into a professional career,
she said she's still learning.
“I know what good sculpture is,”
she said. “I'm still trying to be a good sculptor.”
After teaching at the University of Nevada,
Las Vegas, she decided to focus on her career as an artist. With art
friends in McCook, she decided to scout the area for a new home. Mother
of three boys, she chose Cambridge in 1994 largely because the community
has a reputation for good schools.
Since her family's move to Cambridge, she has
grown as an artist while developing a market for her work.
She said her turning point piece was “Daydreams,”
a 4-foot tall monument depicting a ponytailed girl and her Scottie
dog. The sculpture is on display at Cooper Park in Lincoln.
She has since created a number of religious
monuments, including “Bringing Hope: Rachel
Weeps for Her Children,” on the grounds of Saint Germanus
Catholic Church in Arapahoe. Her sculpture of Catherine
McAuley, who founded the Sisters of Mercy, is on display at Mercy
High School in Omaha and has also been sold to educational institutions
in Louisville, Ky.
“I love doing church art,” Jonson
said. The subject not only provides a source of commissions, it ties
in with her Catholic faith.
While working on divine subject matter suits
her, she resists being pigeonholed. She has completed equally impressive
secular pieces, including a ballerina titled “Swan
Princess” at the Phelps County Performing Arts Center in
Holdrege, and a farm family gathering around the radio in “Breaking
News” outside of KRVN studios in Lexington.
“It's beautiful,” said Ed Bennett,
operations manager for the radio station. “We've gotten a lot
of attention because of it.”
When she works on a project, she spends hours
doing research and making drawings from both photographs and live
models. She sculpts in modeling clay and likes to spend time away
from a piece so she can gain a new perspective when she returns to
it.
A mason jar, smeared with fingerprints, holds
the tools of her trade: wire end tools, ball end tools, paddles and
rakes. But her most valuable instrument is the caliper — the
pincher-like tool that helps gauge perspective.
“The big picture really matters in art,”
she said. “It's got to work all together. The body has to flow.”
