Artist Statement

I have always been intrigued by figures—their character and attitude.   My early portraits, in pastel, ink, or graphite, convey an edgy moodiness, a sense of solitude or longing.  In these figurative works I give form to an internal state of mind.  Later I began to experiment with color and composition, adding metallic gouache to the paintings and cropping the figure to focus on a gesture or moment rather than the whole.

These drawings and gestures, taken from life, became the foundation for my abstract paintings. Comparing the figurative and abstract work can be informative.  In the abstracts, you may find an echo of the figure in a line or shape.  What was background in the portraits may become the subject of the abstract paintings:  pure color, form, line, shape, texture.  Sometimes the line brings out the figure; at other times, the line is meant to obscure the figure, drawing the viewer to other planes and images, offering  alternate focal points as the light shifts during the day or night.

My sculptures continue this exploration of figuration. The early sculptures often explored the body from the inside:  its bones and muscles.  “Flayed,” for example, shows the skin peeled back to expose what lies beneath, vertebrae and scapula.  I saw the female body composed of pear shapes:  breasts, buttocks, belly.  In my series “Pyriforma” these pears have become abstract, so that they evoke recurring female shapes, without being explicit.

In my new series, “Sylph,” cloaked female figures suggest something elemental, open to multiple interpretations. In contrast to my drawings from life, these figures are mysterious, emerging as I stretch and shape the clay.  They are essentially faceless, yet universal.  There may be multiple figures or parts of the figure arising out of different planes.   These sculptures are small, so that they can be held in the hand and felt.  The glazes are blues and greens, to convey a sense of calm and soothing. Many of the glazes break, emphasizing the line.

In all of my work, I use color and shape, line and gesture, to animate these figures and forms–to infuse them with the energy of life.