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Sculpture Statement

 

Between 1988-98 I developed a number of sculptures using figures. This series began with life-size figures using clay and mixed media, and gradually evolved to figures on a much more modest and intimate scale placed in architectural settings.  During this same period I traveled several times to Italy as an artist and a teacher.  The Renaissance art and architecture I saw there influenced the development of my ideas and images. The earlier life-size figures were created between 1990-1993, each one slowly evolving, while at the same time I developed other large sculptures. I always thought of the large figures as "my ladies", and imagined them standing in a group in a dimly lit space which viewers would quietly enter to join in their silent conversation.  Later, in my smaller sculptures, I incorporated architectural components and structures as a support or backdrop to set the stage for the message carried through the figures.  All of the sculptures in the entire series were created to translate ideas related to the human condition, particularly concepts centered on fear, luck, loss, and time.  Although all of this work is autobiographical, I tried to incorporate symbolism which has the potential for broad meaning that can dissolve boundaries, and which can provoke intimate psychological responses based on each viewer's own personal history and experience.  Even though the "ladies", and smaller sculptures, were produced almost twenty years ago, they still represent an accurate portrait of who I am.