Hopkinton, MA
I sculpt people—heads, figures, and symbolically, all of humanity. It is what my hands are drawn to do. Whenever they play absently in the clay, a head or figure always emerges. They run over the material, shaping, carving, caressing a realizable image from a meaningless blob.
People fascinate me. It’s as if I’m an ant, crawling around the contours of a face. There is a whole landscape of soulful life to experience. The expression in a brow or a bowed head is incredibly powerful. Just a bit of clay placed here or there on a well-sculpted piece can speak volumes. Trying to capture it is a lifetime’s work.
My motiva¬tion is to know others and myself more fully. Creating and exploring figures brings me closer to understanding myself and humanity in a fundamental, nonverbal, way. The face has so much psychic importance in our lives. The eyes, lips, and the whole configuration, both literally and figuratively, are at the center of our lives.
I love to take my art beyond the literal, adapting the figure to convey philosophical ideas and abstract concepts. When I dig into the clay, I pull out a vision that previously existed nowhere but inside my head, and the forms emerge.
I project the art out at the viewer, entering their space. Sometimes I create holes in the clay so a viewer can glimpse another side. I work around the sculpture, making lines of movement, creating each facet to draw the viewer to the next angle, where sometimes, there are visual or literary discoveries to be found.
For example, my sculpture, Unraveling, portrays the need for balance in politics, and more generally, in life. The two people appearing to be made of coiled wire are engaged in a tug of war on a see-saw. But these are not child’s games – as each figure struggles to pull the opponent across the middle, their own makeup is coming apart, and they are slowly destroying themselves. The see-saw is precariously balanced atop a pyramid engraved with the Eye of Providence, which is based on the imagery on the reverse side of the American dollar bill, and implies the basis of the struggle. Ultimately, if either side “wins”, the balance will be upset and they will both fall. The sculpture is paired with my quote, “If winning is at the cost of others, everyone loses.”
In the end, it’s the things I create that define my life. I aim to make great art. Art can cause a powerful effect on people. It can make anyone see the world differently. Art can be engaging in a way that generates discussion and brings about change. The best art relates to the everyday in order to cause people to experience, think, and understand life more fully.
