Installation of Recent Exhibition at The Providence Art Club
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Inspired by the human body, my portfolio of sculptures follows three areas of concentration: motion, fashion and interaction. I have explored these areas through a variety of materials and processes, with a primary focus on casting wax into Bronze and Iron, welding steel and most recently manipulating sheets of chicken wire.
At the Slade, my drawings of the human form evolved from a calm observation in the life room to a physical event in my studio. Music enables me to connect my hand movements to a rhythm that guides the marks I make on paper. It removes my critical eye for a time, letting my confidence lead me. When I learned how to build human armatures in steel, I began to translate this rhythmic drawing into space, replacing the lines with steel rods. I developed the figure with a gesture and energy in mind, and I practiced the movement of the pose in order to completely understand the necessary gravity and angles. This is not to say that all of my figures are self-portraits. In fact, I created mostly gender-neutral figures in order for the movement to speak first to the viewer.
In my wax studio, I oscillate between sculpting portraits and figures. The theme of movement continues in tandem with these subjects. For my portraits, I concentrate on actions within the face that create visible emotion. Often working from my imagination, the face emerges from a fragmented form, and these individuals arrive from some of the most complex parts of my character. Beyond my mind, I sometimes look at photographs from newspapers, singling out a person whose expression strikes a chord with me. The figures portray fashion as a fusion of posture, movement and detail. I am drawn to the sculptural qualities of cloth as it drapes over the body and its ability to extend lines of movement. Each woman is elegant and unique in attitude.
In contrast, my search for volume and sculptural presence has led me to a larger than life scale in chicken wire. I build bodies that flow into each other, creating an inseparable group. The layers of interaction within each sculpture mirror the wire as it overlaps into defined lines and fades out around large volumes. The transparent mass resonates with the body of the viewer.
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