Sculptures

Inspirations

As in all my work, I work with spiritual and nature themes.

The sculptural works are built in pieces that I make from chunks of clay. I carefully mold, glaze, and sometimes glaze a second or third time. As I work, a mystery both unfolds and is unraveled, and getting the pieces to go together is an intuitive process. I work by feel as much as I work by sight, and I know when they are in the right place by feel. I never like rushing my work. Some pieces take years to complete, putting up resistance and doubt. Some pieces pull themselves together with little effort of my part.

My time spent in nature has created in me the desire to infuse a sense of expansive beauty and quiet into my suburban backyard. I think it is a nature impulse, especially in an urban/suburban environment, to want to have some control over your environment – to make your surroundings peaceful, inviting, sheltering, and reflective of the spiritual.

There is something wonderfully immersive about the feeling of my hands in clay, similar to that same immersive quality of being out in nature. The clay takes on a life of its own, and this is wonderful.

Background

There is I feel a common thread from my earliest memories to this present day, reflected in all my work, and particularly in my sculpture. The subject matter that interests me now, is the same as my younger years, and the elements of nature that I am connected to are the same.

As a child, I loved creating little sub-worlds in the yard, and felt a total connection to the plants and the little bugs and flowers. The little figures and dolls I made would become part of that world. It is weird to think that I still do this, with the same focus and sense of urgency. I don’t say this with pride and I don’t say this with embarrassment. I was not consciously trying to hold on to this Marcia the artist part, but she certainly held on to me and demanded that I create the space and time in my life to let her create.