Artist Statement – Sculpture 2025

     My early wire jewelry works evolved into making fences of telephone wire for sheep. The telephone wire continues to show up in my work.  As for choosing a material for creative expression, wire sparked for me as a medium several years later during Open Door at Haystack Mountain School of Arts.  Once I overheard a comment at an opening that dismissed my work as a Calder knock offs… I was flattered and insulted.  Wire is a medium, oil is a medium, wood is a medium, stone is a medium, plastic is a medium. I find Alexander Calder’s works inspiring.

     Drawing [with wire ]in space is as Paul Klee said, “Drawing is like taking a line for a walk”. Being interested in traditional basket-making my structures are often vessels with interior elements. Animal forms and physical gestures inspire a lot of the work. The quiet spiderlike action of winding and weaving the wire around and around becomes both meditative and structural. Materials assert themselves and a piece will often take on its’ own gestured direction. The process of discovery and problem solving to create a structure that will be strong, interesting and communicate is what I enjoy and keeps me making.

“I have been making wire jewelry – and think I’ll really do something with it, eventually.”  Alexander Calder