Artist's Statement
From the time I could read, I have always had a yen for mythology, archeology, poetry and tales of ancient times. Sculpture is the synthesis of all these passions. I see myself as a storyteller in stone. A stone sculpture is better than any words. Carving is equal parts physical labor and a labor of love. I enjoy hunting for the perfect piece of marble, alabaster or limestone on which to tell my story and the feel of the tools used to bring each stone to life. When I am nearing completion, I close my eyes and feel the piece's silhouette, details and texture. If my fingers are pleased, my story is told. Mostly, because I am a direct carver, joy lies in the discovery that unfolds as the figure emerges. As my sculpting mentor, Gerald Lynch, said: Follow your bliss and let the marble chips fly.
About the Sculptures (all weights and sizes are approximate):
South Sea Maiden: When I saw this aqua/white marble with one side completely roughed into a coral-like texture by water coursing through the mine, I knew it would have to be a sea-girl. A T.S. Eliot poem came to me: "I have heard the mermaids singing
each to each…I have seen them riding seaward on the waves combing the white hair of the waves back when the wind blows the water white and black."
I thought of Gauguin when I carving her flowing hair like sand ripples-- a sea anemone and seashells caught in her hair. The tilt of her head is like the figurehead on the prow of a sailing ship and her face like a pearl diver in the South China Sea.
Skimming the Wave: This bottlenose dolphin leaping through the waves finds its inspiration in the dolphin in the bay at Port Aransas, Texas. It has a side of quartz that glitters in the sun like light off the water. As I sat waiting for the ferry, I remembered sitting at Delphi, Greece, watching the ocean sparkle at the nearby port of Itea. I read this 4,000-year old Homeric poem: "As first in the dark sea sprang in dolphin form onto the swift ship, so pray to me as Delphinius." Thus too sprang my dolphin.
Southern Shell: Searching a Gulf Coast beach for a perfect whelk, I found many sand-scoured, wave-tossed broken whelks. Gradually it dawned on me these less-than-perfect shells had more personality than the museum specimen I had been seeking. They reminded me of flowers. I arranged them in my studio and one day I carved this Southern Shell.
Sunset Bouquet: When this translucent alabaster is lit from behind, its radiant, peachy-orange reminds me of the landscape near the Four Corners in Utah where it was mined and where the sun sets in just such brilliance.
Khmer Temple Figure: Fragment Series: As I walked along an Aegean beach I found a little limestone shard from Athena's Temple on the cliff above me. I day-dreamed of what it would be like to travel the world and find pieces fallen from ancient buildings, washed up by ocean or hidden in jungle vines. This figure is such a "dream piece" I found near Ankgor Wat in Cambodia.
Fossil I: Garden Fossil Series: Much the same philosophy as the Fragment Series. Instead of figures, I "find" primeval fossils of flowers, leaves, insects, shells, and fish. Made of Texas limestone, already embedded with fossils, these pieces are rough and thus more affordable. They are meant for display outside in the garden.
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