Artist Statement
I enjoy the physicality of sculpture, the most primitive desire to just make, build, construct, something beautiful..
I work in a classical style with the nude or draped figure, developing ideas as a result of sculpting directly from the model or drawing from life. My academic background in archaeology and years of teaching art history are a stimulus to developing my sculptures along mytho-historical themes. The titles of my work reflect this interest. I am a Europhile and much of my research comes from visits to museums, galleries and archaeological sites, all of which are the focus of my continental travels.
I primarily work with three different mediums: winterstone, bronze and resin. Because winterstone exhibits distressed surfaces and uneven coloration, I use it to suggest the weathered time-worn surfaces of the archaic object. Bronze being one of the oldest respected materials can also express the antique. Resin, a modern plastic, can be patinated to replicate bronze. All three mediums reflect my interest in marrying the material with the theme.
Historical fields of reference are Michelangelo’s “non-finito” works and Rodin’s “abbatis”. Contemporary influences are the monolithic heads and torsos of the Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj, the welded drapery and fractured forms of the American Judith Brown, and the distressed and broken surfaces of the French sculptor Christophe Charbonnel.