This past fall I began taking on greater numbers of commissions for doing portrait sculpture. I enjoyed the work so much I made the decision to continue my focus on this work into 2011. I've always been a fan of the great California "funk movement" sculptor, Robert Arneson, and really appreciate how the avenues of satire open up with this personality directed approach to sculpture. You can begin to pick up on this new direction in the following slide show where I include a series entitled, "Pricks on Sticks: A sculptor's interpretation of the Financial industry." This is an ongoing creation of hand sculpted patio torches which include many notable figures in the banking and political realms. All the people I have chosen in this series have demonstrated having a great hand in crashing the world economy while unscrupulously helping to enrich themselves. I find this kind of work empowering. After so many years of just producing craft for an art market, I have enjoyed the political voice that this work has enabled in my work.
As with all my potraits, they are made from wheel thrown and hand sculpted stoneware and are fired in heavy reduction to cone 10 using an electric/gas hybrid kiln.
These are so great! I once made a target for my husband to shoot at to vent his rage against the bankers. I put photos of four of them on a commercial target and he has a great time blasting away. Unfortunately there was only room for three photos. Hahahaha
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