Shrines & Altarpieces

I have always been fascinated by folk art, by its unequivocal and colorful staging of archetypes—images like those found in fairy tales, myths, and dreams. For some works, like the Hecate series, I chose earthenware and used techniques like slip casting, hand-building, and terra sigillata surfacing. But, like so much of sculpture, these techniques—along with the firing stages—seemed to encumber the creative process and delay outcome. I am returning now to the low tech materials I use in the altar pieces, because they enable the more direct, spontaneous outcomes that I could achieve in drawing and painting, and that seem also to characterize the folk art tradition.