| For a number of years my work focused on the issue of personal history, and I painted with an obsession for narrative. My focus was on the stories that give our lives meaning or define our identities. My own story changed radically when my husband became ill with terminal cancer in the fall of 2004. My painting studio was too distant from him and I inexplicably felt the need to move from two-dimensional to three-dimensional work. There was something very reassuring about the challenges of form and substance, not to mention the complexities of keeping a figure or bust from toppling.
I have had no formal training in either painting or sculpture, nor did I have a source for instruction at the time I began this process. I had to develop a technique entirely from trial and error and with the materials I had at hand. Because I also work as a Nurse Practitioner, I had access to such things as casting material (plaster gauze). At home there were many items such as unopened cans of food supplement (nasty stuff), old clothes, kindling, yarn, etc. and I started to incorporate these into my work.
I didn’t know then, or now for that matter, who will emerge when I start a piece. Over the course of my husband’s illness, I did twelve sculptures. During their gestation, because they had their own personality, they were good company . Because laughter is what keeps many of us sane in difficult circumstances, each piece managed to find it’s own source of humor.
Since that time, I have continued working with disparate materials, and with each piece once the structural element is complete, I have the pleasure of painting it and seeing who has arrived. I am a great fan of Earl Grey tea, and each morning I look at the used tea bag and muse over its surprising beauty. I collected and dried the bags over many months and they became the hair for “La Tea Doh” and later the skirt for “Early Grey”.
Last winter when the cold in my studio left my fingers numb, I looked for a more portable media and started working with wire and wire mesh. Again I invented the process (and tried to avoid excessive injury) as I went along. Each piece presented technical challenges, and since I don’t use sketches, blue prints, or any advance planning, they have sometimes collapsed under their own weight.
This fall, I decided to experiment with polymer clay, which doesn’t change form or shape when it is baked. I continue to use found or recycled objects, and some of the sculptures are from dolls. The first piece I produced (again after several failures) was reminiscent of the painted and dressed wooden saints seen in catholic churches throughout South America, Spain and Portugal. Since I’ve always had deep love for those figures, I launched a series called “Household Saints of Dubious Virtue”. My intention is in no way religious, iconic or aimed at offending anyone, but is an expression of affection for the quirkiness that is part of our everyday lives.
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