Scultpural Guitars by Rick Schettino

Distinctive Sculptural Guitars For Curated Interiors.

NEXT SHOW:
DRV Gallery, Gulfport, Florida.
Reception: March 21, 5:30-8:30 PM
Exhibit: March 21 and 28, 11 -4
More info.

Sculptural Guitar Gallery

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Pele vs Maui

$450.00

SIZE: 31" x 12"
WEIGHT: 3.5 pounds

Pelé and Maui are the twin pillars of Hawaiian mythology — she the goddess of volcanoes and creation, he the demigod trickster who fished the islands up from the ocean floor. Their elemental domains have been in conflict since the beginning of time. Pelé pours molten fire to the sea's edge, where it explodes, shatters, and grinds into black volcanic sand. Maui's ocean answers back, adorning the shore with shells and sea creatures. Every black sand beach in Hawaii is their battleground — fire meeting water, destruction becoming creation. This piece features a selection of shells and natural beads on a bed of black sand. Every grain of black sand is from Pelé. Every shell belongs to Maui. Together they form one of the most beautiful battlegrounds on Earth.

Before placing an order, please contact me to confirm availability. Some pieces may be on exhibit at a gallery and already reserved. I'm happy to answer any questions about the work and arrange shipping or local delivery. Just drop me a note on the Contact page or email me directly at rick.schettino@gmail.com.

Hathor's Sistrum

$750.00

SIZE: 39" x 14"
WEIGHT: 4 pounds

To the ancient Egyptians, music was a bridge to the divine, and no deity presided over that bridge more gracefully than Hathor. This piece is a modern reimagining of her sacred instrument - the sistrum - used to rattle the heavens and drive away malevolence. (Music is truly magical in that way.) In the 50 years since I rattled my first sistrum, I have helped a small multitude escape from the incessant news of the malevolence in the world, reconnect with the present moment, and let their joy come out and shine. This piece is the result of building up several layers of carefully curated objects such as jewelry, beads, and filigree onto a layer of fine crushed glass for texture. The entire assemblage is then entombed in solid black enamel. Next, the gold highlights are hand painted. After that, I use an antiqueing process to add a patina and give it an aged appearance.

A Guitar For Hera (Acoustic)

$650.00

SIZE: 31" x 12"
WEIGHT: 3.5 & 6.5 pounds

The Greek god Hephaestus was cast out of Olympus by his mother, Hera, who found him physically imperfect. He spent years in exile honing his craftsmanship in secret to create an incredibly ornate throne encrusted with gold, silver, and diamonds. He gifted the throne to Hera, who was astounded by its brilliance. However, when Hera sat upon the throne, mechanical limbs sprang up and bound her. Hephaestus refused to release his mother until he was formally recognized as an Olympian God. Hera, astonished by her son's genius, capitulated. At a young age, I was lured and bound by the brilliant craftsmanship of Guitar Gods like Jimmy Page and David Gilmour. While I never reached their levels of fame, I believe they would agree that my decades of dedication to my craft has earned me a seat at the table. To create these, I use jeweler-grade adhesive—the same material used to mount diamonds and gemstones in gold. Each work is finished with a durable, UV protective clear coat to preserve its brilliance and ensure lasting beauty.

Ratatoskr’s Tree

$750.00

SIZE: 31" x 11"
WEIGHT: 4 pounds

In Norse lore, the squirrel Ratatoskr is the tireless inhabitant of the World Tree, Yggdrasil. This mythical tree spans the universe, its branches reaching into the nine realms of the heavens, its leaves collecting the songs and stories of the cosmos. As a messenger, Ratatoskr scampers eternally between the celestial eagle above and the dragon at the roots, connecting the divine with the terrestrial. In this assemblage, each ring represents a distant world, and every leaf holds an infinity of epic tales of cosmic creation and destruction. In actuality, each of the leaves on this work has its own song and story as they were collected over many months of second-hand treasure hunting. It takes a good size collection of "found objects" and a lot of iteration to put together a symmetrical design like this. It's like putting together a puzzle without a picture to go by.

Gardens of Xochipilli (Full Size)

$600.00

SIZE: 38"
WEIGHT: 6.8 pounds

In Aztec mythology, Xochipilli is the patron of music, dance, and creative ecstasy. He is depicted covered in sacred plants and flowers that unlocked the creative spirit. Within Xochipilli's domain, there is no boundary; art and nature are the same thing. This diptych is an homage to that absence of distinction. Each one is a musical instrument, but also a mosaic of a garden. It hints at a realm where the vibrant scenery of nature and the sound of music become indistinguishable. It is a tribute to the "Flowery Song" - the ancient belief that true creativity is a living, blooming entity that envelopes both the instrument and the artist. These works were assembled from hundreds of bits and pieces of necklace chains and jewelry. The piece is finished with a UV protective satin clear coat.

Ladon's Thicket

$1,250.00

SIZE: 39" x 14"
WEIGHT: 10 pounds

In Ancient Greece, at the edge of the world where the sun sets, lay the Garden of the Hesperides with trees bearing golden apples of immortality. The garden was planted by Gaia as a wedding gift to Hera. The Hesperides, daughters of Atlas, sang as they tended the golden orchard. (As a retired singer/songwriter, I sang as I worked too.) Coiled eternally around the golden grove guarding the trees, was Ladon, a hundred-headed dragon who never slept. Surrounding the garden, preserving it in perpetual beauty, was an impenetrable thicket that kept it hidden from the world. This work is built on a brand new, fully functional Les Paul-style electric guitar. The sunburst finish represents the sunset at the edge of the world where the Garden of the Hesperides resides. And the golden hardware represents the golden apples protected by Ladon's thicket. As with a carefully planned garden, the flowers (gold and rhinestone brooches) were arranged in a symmetrical design. The vines are made of golden rope chain. This piece was assembled with jeweler-grade adhesive and finished with a durable UV protective clear coat to preserve its eternal beauty.

A Guitar For Hera (Electric)

$650.00

SIZE: 31" x 12"
WEIGHT: 3.5 & 6.5 pounds

Torre dell'Orologio (ON HOLD)

$900.00

SIZE: 39" x 14"
WEIGHT: 5.3 pounds

For over five hundred years, the Torre dell'Orologio — the Clock Tower of St. Mark's — has stood at the entrance to Venice's most celebrated piazza. So reliable was this clock that in 1858, the city designated it the official timekeeper of the entire city, the standard to which every other clock was set. But what the city didn't say out loud was that the inner mechanism had been in near-constant crisis. A permanent timekeeper was appointed to live inside the tower. His sole purpose was to keep the clock on time while keeping the chaos behind it hidden from the world, and for centuries, the face of Torre dell'Orologio has kept perfect time. When I found this guitar at a flea market, it looked fine on the surface, but structurally, it was damaged. It struck me as a perfect metaphor: on the face of it, we often appear perfectly functional to the world — like this clock — while inside, our bodies and minds can be complicated, messy, and dysfunctional — like the mechanism inside. This assemblage features lighting that illuminates the clock and the clockworks from within, while exterior lighting on the back of the guitar casts a warm glow on the wall behind it.

THIS ITEM IS ON HOLD

Hardin's Pickaxe

$850.00

SIZE: 40" x 13"
WEIGHT: 9.6 pounds

In 1849, in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, a gold digger named James Hardin struck a "mountain of silver." He left the treasure behind, intending to return. But when he did, he found the desert had erased all trace of his claim. Hardin went to his grave searching for his lost silver mine. The overlap in this story is that a pickaxe is a tool of a prospector's trade. And "axe" is slang for the tool of a guitar picker's trade. "Hardin’s Pickaxe," made with turquoise and silver on a blood red axe is a tribute to all of you Hardin's out there who have lost your treasure troves. Falling short of the expectations we have for our lives is not uncommon. But it may be for the better in many cases. As a young musician, I was confident I was destined for rock stardom. However, what I've realized in the sunrise of my golden days is that at my core, I'm really an introvert, and fame and fortune probably would have ruined me. But I haven't hung up my guitars just yet! (At least not until I've decorated them.)

Flowers For Emily

$650.00

SIZE: 39" x 14"
WEIGHT: 6.3 pounds

This piece is dedicated to Emily Dickinson, widely regarded as one of the greatest poets in the English language. Working in near-total seclusion, she wrung more meaning from fewer words than any poet before or since. Her themes were beauty and darkness, flowers and funerals, love and loss, God and doubt. Startlingly, only ten of her poems were published during her lifetime, all anonymously and without her consent. Friends and neighbors had no idea; they knew her only as a flower gardener. Emily's flowers were what the world saw, while her compendium of fantastic poetry lay obscured in darkness. Upon her death in 1886, forty hand-bound volumes containing nearly 1,800 poems were found hidden in her desk. It wasn't until 1955 — nearly seventy years later — that a complete, unedited edition of her work was finally published. This assemblage is built from secondhand jewelry layered over exactly 1,789 beads of all sizes colors and materials — one bead for each poem — all obscured in blackness. Finished with iridescent paint and multi-color glitter, it gleams and catches the eye as you walk by.

By the Light Of the Moon

$900.00

SIZE: 39" x 14"
WEIGHT: 6 pounds

In daylight, "By the Light Of the Moon," assembled from thousands of glass beads, seashells, sand, and mother of pearl, depicts hand-carved baby sea turtles dashing toward a breathtaking tropical sunset. As night falls, dual internal and external UV lighting transforms the piece; an internal glow turns the sun into a full moon, while luminous beads create a star-spangled sky. Just as sea turtles are drawn to the light of the moon after hatching, the spectacular sunsets and sparkling night skies called on me to hand in my Free Spirit membership card and settle down. After years of roving across North America and living in scores of different locations, I finally feel at home here on the gulf shores of Florida. This piece is comprised of well over 1,000 glass beads of all different types as well as pebbles, shells, mother of pearl, and wooden beads. The palm leaves are made from plastic fern fronds.

Earth To Heaven

$750.00

SIZE: 39" x 14"
WEIGHT: 5.6 pounds

The indigenous peoples of the American Southwest—including the Hopi, the Zuni, and their ancestors, the Anasazi—frequently applied intricate mosaics of silver, turquoise, shells, and polished semi-precious stones to musical instruments, such as flutes, whistles, and percussion instruments. The instruments were thought to grant the user the ability to communicate with the gods through music. Often bits of red were used to provide a contrast to the "sky stone" and silver, striking a balance between the heat of the earth and the cool of the heavens. I don't encase guitars in "sacred minerals" merely for decoration. It's more than that. It's an ontological transformation, raising the instrument to the level of a sacred object that has merged nature with art. As always, I use jeweler-quality adhesives and the final work is finished with a durable, UV protective clear coat to keep it dazzling for years to come.