Artist Statement

My sculptures utilize the human figure to explore gender, familial and societal roles, religious and cultural mores, and human perception. Metaphor and story are used to make connections, provide layers of meaning, and incorporate the universal within the personal. Objects and qualities from different worlds are juxtaposed and exaggeration, or distortion, is used to address dualities and apparent incongruities within human experience such as the beautiful with the ugly, the fantastical with the realistic, the whole with the fragmented, the tragic with the humorous, and the sacred with the worldly.

The desire to understand, or at least know better, those things which mystify me is the major impetus for my art. There are those things from both the present and the past, however commonplace or seemingly without import, which are compelling and hold an emotional charge beyond what is immediately definable. By making such things the focus of an art work, the indefinable is brought into an arena of exploration and play, where new combinations of things are possible and new insights inevitable. My explorations and tinkering are in pursuit of knowledge and my intentions are to transform - to change one form, substance, perception, state, or nature into another.

From STUDIO POTTER, Cynthia Consentino
December 2005, Volume 34, Number 1, page 18, 19.
In response to the question: How does clay, as a material, serve your ideas? I work predominantly with clay because it is so responsive and quick. Clay allows me to sketch, to experiment, to quickly figure things out in space. Though I may have a rough idea of where I want things, it isn’t until I see it in three dimensions that I know. The range of wetness that you can work in clay allows for the experimentation. I build quickly with slabs and coils in the wet stage, paddle and adjust major shapes as the clay gets drier and stiffer, and carve out details and clarify the form in the leather hard stage. I work back and forth, adding and subtracting clay even in the very late stages of leather hard. The range of working time gives you a lot of freedom, but I find that I also appreciate that the clay set ups some limits by eventually getting too dry to work.

The infinite number of possibilities for surface treatment in ceramics is the other attraction. You can make clay look like anything you want. It really depends on my idea and the feeling I want to convey, whether I decide to use traditional clay materials like glaze verses oil paint to finish the piece. My primary concern is content. Creating the form, teasing it out, is the challenge and what keeps me going. Learning something and sharing that with an audience are the rewards. I am intrigued with the contemporary clay world and its dialogue with the domestic and commercial history of ceramics. It is more accessible and familiar to both artist and viewer. It is also particularly of interest to me because of my focus on gender and social roles. The clay figurine, the porcelain doll, and even dinnerware with its symbolic reference to the female body provide vast material.