I felt a tug - a pull from an ideal of simple materials fostering creative process. It was more powerful than previous leanings to create with basic substances that led to experiments with glassblowing and clay, or that resulted in printmaking with a pasta maker. It overpowered my attraction to watercolours as a minimalist medium. The force I felt came from the unassuming potential of paper fiber and paste.

Papier mache has an allure that appeals to:

•  My interests in metamorphosis and transforming past into  present
• A belief that destruction must balance creation, loss must counteract gain
• the need to be conscious of how resources are used and reused along a spectrum of time
• a sense of contained secrets and subversive documents reshaped

The pulp method of papier mache is flexible. It offers the leeway to work small and explore refined forms, or go big and explore textures on broad surfaces. Shapes can be created by building them up, as well as by carving or sanding them down.

I can play with forms that appeal to my sense of whimsy and wonder. Each piece can express its own sense of integrity, from the source documents that were destroyed in creating the mache, to the form that is the end result. When a piece is successful, that integrity is embedded in the nature of the original papers, then carried through the process and finally realized as a completed work. Each piece contains its own tale, its own lesson.

My work reflects the continual nature of change where memory and meaning equal story.

CONTACT ARTIST

Dusty Memories 1a
mix media sculpture

Hippo Back
mix media sculpture