Returning to Sculpture

After a 40-year hiatus, I have returned to my roots as a sculptor, which was my primary artistic training at Brandeis University in the early 1970s under the guidance of my wonderful mentor Peter Grippe. (More about Peter, our relationship, and his impact on me will be coming in a separate blog in the future.) Over the years, my art headed toward painting, which gave me a way to create dreamlike imagery – actors and actresses flying, people holding globes larger than themselves, myself juggling all the planets of the universe, and the like. I struggled to visually cross the line from possible to impossible in sculpture, as it is governed by laws of physics and gravity. How could I make a dancer do a pirouette on one toe on a balance beam without falling off, or a fiddler walk across a rope between two buildings while playing the fiddle? I am aware of very few sculptors who have been able to capture such fantasy-like imagery in sculpture.

And then in around 2021, I decided to return to my roots in sculpture. I have a large collection of semi-precious stone beads and made a sculpture out of them. It was wonderful to be sculpting again! I soon realized that stone chips would be better than beads. I didn’t need the sphere shapes or the holes of beads, and small chips gave me more control over the image. I began to add wood, motors, paintings, and more. It’s been very exciting!

Many of my new sculptures are related to images I’ve painted in the past. "Delicate Balance" captures much of what I’ve been working at artistically for decades, integrating the strength and beauty of women, dance and our earth. “Jacob’s Ladder” returns to a theme that I painted in the 1990s, inspired by such a compelling and visual text: “a ladder was set up on the earth, its top reaching the heavens, and here, angels were going up and down on it.” Genesis 28 I've often wondered: why would angels need a ladder? “Sunrise Sunset” is the third in my “Fiddler” series – the first two, “Fiddler” and “Fiddler on the Rope,” were paintings.

I wish I could speak with Peter Grippe about this, both for his input, and to let him know that many of the lessons he taught me about sculpture – philosophical, historical, aesthetic, artistic, and practical – are helping me in this very exciting period of my artistic career. I hope you enjoy the new sculptures, and look forward to showing you more in the future.