Sculpture

As a figurative artist who began as a painter, I first conceived sculpture in color. Translucent, tinted polyester resin satisfied this vision, and I produced works cast in this medium throughout the 70’s. Most, along with the quilts that accompanied their showing, were sold through my Chicago dealer, Mack Gilman. Though sensual and seductive, polyester resin turned out to be too toxic to handle, both to the artist and the environment, so I turned to cast stone, a finely aggregated concrete that accepts surface color staining. It’s an earthier, ceramic like material, but labor intensive. These works, also accompanied by quilts, succeeded in the marketplace. However, after I returned to RISD to teach in 1986, I stopped making “work on spec” and worked only by commission. This is when bronze entered the picture, first in the execution of raised letter bronze plaques, then in a trial casting of a 1972 self-portrait. I grew comfortable enough with bronze to undertake other works, among them a major commission, and now more recently the Sophia sculpture.