My adult life began with my decision to be an artist. I entered art school with the vague idea of being a painter and left with settled passion of being a sculptor. I worked as a fully committed sculptor for seven years before I walked through the door of William Moennig & Son. My work evolved through a series of approaches to wood carving and assembling and eventually emerged in a way that also combined real world objects. The finished work creates a swirling combination of figurative forms,reality (in the form of objects) and bold, exuberant, personal forms into a brightly painted imaginary confection of both the real and unreal buoyed up with a musical motion. My output slowed as I grew increasingly interested in string instruments. I also bought a shell of a house in the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia and fully renovated it (a sculptural project if there ever was one!) Over the last few years the intensity of my involvement in the instruments has not given me enough creative energy to finish any pieces. I continue to be fascinated by living with my work and feeling what it has to give me about my past I’m also deeply curious about the pieces that remain undone
In hindsight I’m struck by how closely my sculpture related to string instruments. I had been working to make my forms ever thinner and more graceful while trying to create a kind of static musical energy that would give the piece delicate grace and lightness. All these qualities are crucial in violin making and restoration. The passionate interest in art also prepared me for the painstaking effort to stay with the work through all the stages on its way to the final sense of completion. Art also teaches the most important thing of all when it comes to working with your hands: to intensely care.
The portrait of on the mantle piece was done by my daughter Claire ,who is in her second year studying fine art at Parsons School of Art in NYC
The wall piece above is carved,painted wood made in 2006- titled “Whirligig”
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