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I have always been particularly attracted to making figurative work because of
my love of the human form and my fascination with the physical, intellectual,
and emotional forces in human interactions. The appeal of working in wire is that
it is a direct and rapid way to create expressive gestures. It is a transformation
of the body away from the imitation of life and into a symbol. It encourages consideration
of what is happening rather than who it is happening to. |
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Though my sculptures exist in three-dimensional space, when I
first began this way of working, I studied the Egyptian hieroglyphs to see how
the Egyptians maximized the expressiveness of a flat figure moving in two dimensions.
The fundamental element of this work is a wire gesture drawing. My material is
annealed steel wire, which I work with my fingers and needle nose pliers. I begin
each figure at the armpit and move around the outline of the body shaping the
wire and forming the gesture with my fingers and the pliers. When I get back to
the original armpit I finish off the figure with a knot. It becomes part of the
pool of figures from which I draw to compose my sculptures.
There are three types of compositions in my work. |
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In the first type, I have a narrative idea. Working on the floor
or on the wall, I move the figures around, overlapping, separating, modifying
the dimensionality by stretching or bending the figures, playing with the interactions
of individual figures as well as the interactions of the whole. I work until the
piece feels visually resolved and narratively suggestive.
The second type of composition feeds into my passion for forms. I have used geometric
forms (circles and triangles), decorative forms (curlicues), and functional forms
(vases). I draw the outline of a form and fill it, playing with formal
elements like density, directionality, and negative space. Though this is ostensibly
an objective, non-narrative way of working, I often find myself considering psychologically
which figures I am placing next to each other. |
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| In the third type, I am scavenging
my studio. I am taking old, unresolved pieces, fragments of pieces, and piles
of figures I can no longer untangle and combining them. Unlike the second type,
the final form is emergent rather than pre-determined. My ultimate concern is
the look of the piece, how the parts play off each other in the overall form.
Although the second and third types are primarily abstract, I find myself and
viewers placing narrative interpretations on them because the figurative components
still suggest a story. |
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When I have decided the composition works, there are several
steps for finishing the piece. The first involves attaching the figures to each
other with wire ties or, if the piece is very volumetric and there is a lot of
distance between the figures, with wire bridges. The next step is to make the
piece ready for installation by attaching wire posts that stick out of the back
of the piece for attaching to a wall or another surface. These posts replace the
pins I use on the wall during composition. Finally, I prime and paint my work
to protect it from rust. |
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