the sculptor
Once upon a time and in a former life, I sculpted more than I wrote. It’s what came easily. It’s what I’d studied since my early teens at the Corcoran in Washington, DC, and at l’Academia di Belle Arti di Perugia, Italia. I received my first portrait commission at age sixteen.
Most of my work lives elsewhere, commissions that grace homes and offices. I played with various media: clay, stone, metal, pieces cast in bronze or cement. Resins, being toxic, disappeared from my world once I had children.
I told my daughter that I’d immortalize her pout if she wanted. She did: I could not get her to smile.
Ariana at five
This huge cement piece followed me home on a ship from Italy. It’s all I have left from those days — and it was the largest, heaviest thing I’d made. As you can see, I toyed with abstraction. When that bored me, I went back to creating life-size bodies (cast in resin from clay figures) that hung on the wall. A pair won First Place in a show judged by the sculpture curator of the National Gallery. Years ago.
a foray into the abstract
My mama
I began doing more portraits, including whole families, or corporate executives and housewives. Here’s an example of one commissioned of this young boy.
I loved working from life, getting to know the clients, until one day I didn’t. I had three commissions in a row that made me wonder how this could possibly be my calling.
Which is when I decided to follow my other love: writing.
And here I am.
I’m afraid abstract art is not my thing but I would rate your real life busts as ranking with the greats. It’s magnificent work and I’m not surprised you thought you had a calling. You are one of those people I would honour with the title ARTIST and mean it truly.
David, thank you. I also did life-sized bodies that would hang on the wall. To make them light enough, I had to cast them in plastic resins, which one ought not to breathe, especially if having babies. So, I quit that and moved back to terra cotta.
I’m glad to be writing now. It’s much more portable and uses more than the hand-eye mechanism of my former work. I do very much appreciate your kind words. They mean a great deal to me.
Wow, I think I remember your telling me about your other love, but you never showed me – takes my breath away they are so beautiful!
Denise, aren’t you a sweetheart! Thank you!