Women ’71 Revisited ARC Gallery, Chicago, 1996

In 1971, though a graduate student in ceramics at Ohio State University, I was working principally from the model in the Life Sculpture laboratory, at the same time learning the techniques of mold making, bronze casting, etc. Three Graces (Torsos) 1971-1996 is a multiple pulled from a portion of the mold of a completed life-size figure sculpted from life in one of these classes. Soon however, dissatisfied with the mimetic nature of figuration, a new transition occurred displayed via my solo M.F.A. thesis exhibit in early 1973. This consisted of oversized pieces, minimal in nature (for instance a sphere, a cylinder, a cone, an egg encased in a minimal box, a cell-like shape) which the participants got into in order to gain an experience of the forms from the inside. Many of the pieces were vinyl inflatable, a medium that became increasingly appealing as my work became more experimental because it is (rather was) cheap and the hundreds of finsihed works easy to store.

The simple cell-like shape that I developed in 1973 revealed its potential for two major sequences of work. One of these was to subdivide and recombine it in ways that produced spiral forms. Over twenty years, off and on, I learned to make very sophisticated spiralling forms, some of these related to the concept of DNA. Most were subsumed under the title Universe for they were the means by which I formed my own concepts about the formation of the Universe.

The basic idea behind the sculpture that I have made since the mid 70’s is to take two similar elements (discs), divide them, then recombine the parts in subtly different ways. The result is a great many related but different forms, that is families of forms. Though the procedures are simple, through the work I have been able to imagine the workings of the universe and the complexity of biological variation. Over about 20 years there have been hundreds of forms, many clumsy, some elegant. In the recent past several have appeared to be portraits of a matirarchal lineage stretching from Eliza Royal, my grea-great grandmother, to Jane, my daughter. To date this My Family selection of waiting-to-be bronze forms numbers six.