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  Growing up on Long Island in the USA, I showed an early interest in the sciences, particularly natural history. My parents encouraged me with Erector sets, chemistry sets, biological model kits, lots of help wiith science projects. However, I also drew horses and dogs, made tiny models of boats in balsa wood and even tried carving soap. Midway through university I decided that while science was interesting, I wasn’t sufficiently passionate about it to pursue it as a career. While considering architecture as an alternative, I took my first life drawing class, I was totally captivated. WhenI tried my first sculpture my interest in making things, in natural history and my three dimensional skills finally came together and I had found my metier. Naturally, these first wood sculptures were quite literal and realistic as I developed on my technical skills and knowledge of anatomy. |
 In 1975 I moved to Australia. I spent the next 2 years travelling around the country, searching for reptiles with my herptelogist husband. I still found time to carve and experimented with various Australian native timbers, imported wood and soapstone. With added experience the anatomy of the figures became more abstract and less literal, the poses became more active and less realistic. The work in general became more gestural, concentrating on the whole figure rather than individual parts. This transition can be seen in comparing Pregnant Woman (1) and Sitting Girl(2) to Woman Looking at her Heel(4) and Up or Down?(3) . I travelled throughout the US and Europe in 1982-83, visiting all the major art museums, immersing myself in art history and attempting painting. I had my first solo show at Robin Gibson Gallery in 1982. The combination of these experiences was invigorating. When I returned to my studio in Sydney in 1984, I began working on a larger scale, venturing out of wood carving—out of the limits of a block, and into new materials like bronze. I started using harder edges and more geometric shapes to express the forms of the body. And I ventured into more emotionally expressive poses. I started using sharp lines to lead the eye around the form and direct the flow of energy of the whole piece. New York Lady(5) and Sitting Torso(6) led to Vulnerable(8) and Dancing Torso(7). Next I started constructing sculptures rather than carving, and Athlete(9) and Somersault(10) were a result of not being restricted sculpturally by the size of a tree trunk. |
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 In 1990 I returned to Europe to experiment once again with painting. The result was another conceptual leap: solid forms developed holes and the insides of the forms became part of the sculptures, whole figures or torsos gave way to less traditional combinations of body parts and sculptures moved off the ground or plinths and onto the wall. The first works from this time include Gymnast Torso(11) and The Wink(12). I began exploring the limits of how abstract a work could be and how little anatomy was needed to still convey a sense of the body. I used only the parts of anatomy vital to the movement, i.e., back muscles for a twisting motion as seen in the Discobolus serise, Compression, Torque and Propulsion(13). These works also illustrate my new interest in making series of sculptures, rather than letting one single pose define the action. Taking the next step, I then made sculptures in pieces and assembled them after casting as seen in Four Fractions=Odalisque(14) . |
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 After regularly exhibiting in Australia and being in group expositions in Paris, in 1999 I completed my first commissioned work in the US. In 2000 I was accepted in Sculpture by the Sea exhibition, an annual, highly competitive and highly visible exhibition along the sea cliffs of Sydney. I suddenly had an expanded audience and found new challenges to my work. I have learned to satisfy site specific issues like courtyard settings vs open ground, or indoors vs outdoor mountings. I find inspiration from the wide range of needs and aspirations of the people interested in sculpture. Examples of the commissioned sculptures are Swish(15) and The Swing(16): see the In-Situ section of this website for their settings. At the same time I have explored creating sculptures about emotional themes, across a spectrum from tenderness to rage. To capture a greater intensity of body language I used more defined anatomy, even if very abstract, as can be seen in Denial(18) and Explosion(17), two extremes from my exhibition, Rage & Blues. In another diversification, I have recently discovered laser cutting/water jet cutting. This gives me more possibilities to easily change size and material. I realized I could also combine many figures to make steel assemblages as seen in Launch(19). This in turn made me consider new ways to treat bronze. In Envelope(20) I used one piece of chicken wire, that I bent and folded then covered in plaster. If you could hammer out the resulting bronze piece, it would return to one flat piece. The same discipline was used for all the pieces in the exhibition Cuts & Folds. As a total change of pace, I moved to NYC in Sept 2007, but I was immediately caught up in work on a new commission for the biggest sculpture I had ever attempted, Momentum (21--standing 8’ tall) The techniques I used for building the unique wax original was no different than previously but working at this scale did expand my ideas in other ways. I would love to work on this scale again—I have lots of suitable ideas. But in the meantime I have been working on sculptures on the theme of balance—off balance, counter-balanced, well balanced or struggling for balance, eg Teetering(22) These will be exhibited in May 2010 at the Depot Gallery in Sydney. |
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