Tibetan Woman
Tibetan Woman
11" wide by 7" deep by 12" high. Weight = 10 pounds. Ceramic. No installation requirements. Could be set on ground or pedestal.
$225
Tibetan Woman
"In 1996, I travelled to Hong Kong and mainland China, including the autonomous region of Tibet. My time in Tibet was a life-changing experience. Whether that was because of the lack of oxygen at 17,000 feet or because of something truly spiritual, I will never know. Years later, I bought a photograph, “Four Grandmothers, Lhasa, Tibet” by Ann Arbor. It inspired me to make this piece as a reminder of how warmly greeted I was by women just like these in the Lhasa marketplace. I love their faces, their skin so wrinkled from the harsh climate, their dark eyes, and their playful expressions."
"I have loved the arts since I was a small child—drawing, painting, ceramics, playing
several musical instruments, singing, acting, and writing. I can still remember my first
ceramic figure in second grade, a pink elephant. After college, I spent the next three
decades fully engaged in my career as an organizational consultant and executive
coach, a profession that required much travel and left little time or energy for pursuing
art. Then in 1998, I had a brief but serious illness that stopped me in my tracks,
prompting all those questions about who am I, what am I doing with my life, and what do
I want to be doing. My answer was to take a 4-month leave of absence to explore my
relationship with the arts. I enrolled in an art history class at UNC, took drawing classes
at the Durham Arts Council, and had the extraordinary experience of figure sculpture
classes with French sculptor Martine Vogel.
Since then, I have been almost continually enrolled in drawing, painting and many
ceramics classes at the Durham Arts Council, Ghost Ranch, the Carrboro Arts Center,
ClayWorx Studios in Pittsboro, and Pocosin Arts School. I have been taught, inspired
and encouraged by wonderful artists and teachers—too many to list here, but
particularly Chad Hughes, Larry Downing, Stacye Lenza and Debbie Englund.
Ceramic Hand-building and Sculpture
Years ago in a figure drawing class, Chad Hughes suggested I try ceramics (3-D) to
improve my drawing (2-D), and clay has been my primary medium ever since. I enjoy
making functional pieces (ovenware, vases, lamps), but most of my work is figurative
sculpture. I’ve recently started a series of women clothed in fashions from the early
twentieth century. I’ve also been working on different body types, facial expressions,
and larger scale figures.
In many ways I still feel very much the beginner. I am still exploring and have yet to
establish a style or find my voice. My current developmental goal is to create larger
pieces. Reflecting on my training, I’m realizing that much of it has been about
observation and replication—still life drawings, plein air water colors, live model
sculptures. Now, finally, I find myself entering a phase of my journey that is all about
looking inside for my inspiration, getting out of my head, letting it happen through my
hands, being in flow, and asking each piece I create to tell its own story."