As I prepare to write statements for artist residency applications, I am diligently looking for the thread that connects my sculptural work, whether it is sculpture from my bird body of work, collaborative or other sculpture. And looking for a connective thread from my sculptural work to my landscape watercolors is even more vexing! Certainly light and its play on surfaces is a common interest for me, whether it's 2-D or 3-D work I'm making. Materials and their possibilities are fascinating to me, as well. And I guess the common thing about materials and my approach to them is that balance between me forcing them to do what I want them to do and me recognizing what they need to do - what they're best at. For instance, watercolors....they're beautiful when they bleed and flow, beautiful when the pigment pools at the edge of a wet area and beautiful when the layers are allowed to dry between applications....but using those techniques to best describe a landscape/ object is the part where my decision making comes in.
Red Zinnia in Bottle,
detail, November Sky Over Fields
So light and how it plays on 3-dimensional objects - the shadows and reflections is very interesting to me, as well. I find myself being almost more interested in the shadows than the objects I make. But there again, using materials to create a shape and then displaying/composing those shapes in a larger piece becomes a collaboration with the piece.
detail, Bird Collection, 2016, collection Lynda Cole & Paul Malboeuf
detail, Bird Collection, 2016, wood, plexi, silver leaf, fabric, thread, steel