The clay figure form has been constant
to my work for ten years. It has served as a vehicle for carving
and layering painted narrative patterns. In many ways it relates
to a potter decorating and designing images on a pot. I think
of the American Indian potters of Acoma Pueblo or the Hopi potters
in their wrapping of symbolic and narrative forms around traditional
shapes.
My patterns are images and symbols
that have reference to places, situations or experiences in my
life. I organize the shapes in a floating composition that wrap
each figure form. They are somewhat enigmatic and visually poetic.
The images might refer to mountain landscapes of the Western United
States, where I spend my summers or the tropical foliage and leaf
forms of my Florida residence. Other symbols such as the spiral
( infinity form), furrowed water forms, house shapes and stair
sections have been introduced and used to continue the personal
narrative and journal. They also become part of the moving composition
that wraps each figure. It is a man and nature or man and experience
reference.
American Indian Art and Tribal Art
of all cultures has always held my interest. I appreciate these
artists's skills with material, their connection to nature and
the spiritual, their sense of design and narrative. I also enjoy
the work of contemporary artists whose work seems to reflect tribal
influences.
|