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Hands:
Burdens & Blessings
The human hand, culture-bound yet common, is a fragmented reference to corporeal experiences and abstract meaning. In addition to the unique utilitarian capacity of the human hand, its physical flexibility and versatility permits a range of expression as gestures become material manifestations of psychological states. A poet may rub words together to ignite a thought; a musician gathers sounds in formation, using one sense to stimulate the rest. Expressing the fluidity of impalpable consciousness through static visual form is often the sculptor’s conundrum.
In my work, the body was no longer whole; in its place stood a pedestal that supported the body's residual form for contemplation. Stone, clay, wax and metal served as physical interpretations of ethereal perceptions long after the hands that shaped them go still.
Critical in this series was my commitment to modeling from life. Granted the renderings of hands were greatly oversized and exaggerated, these were the first objects that I made where I closely examined the subject. My conceptual source had become a more demanding visual source. It may seem odd for a visual artist to admit to visual indifference, but abstraction had allowed me to accept the infinite range of possibilities for a contour's path. Abstraction is forgiving in this way and incredibly liberating; however, modeling from life informed my sculpture with more specific and personal sensibilities.