I am a sculptor who lives in Madison, Wisconsin. Recently, I have been carving stone. Most of my work has been created on a commissioned basis. Thank you for visiting my portfolio.
Artist Statement
I guess I never got over my first carving assignment: “Make something that feels good.” That was in a sculpture class in 1976 that I took because I needed a Humanities credit. Since then, after years of working in many different materials, carving stone always feels like coming home again.
I have been asked the “what is it” question more times than I have been asked my own name. I have struggled with the answers in various ways including throwing myself into an intensely conceptual graduate school program. In the end the answer is as simple and as complicated as living in our bodies and having emotions.
In my pieces I combine shell, human, and plant forms to create sensual anthropomorphic objects. The work has a strong presence and carries a lifelike quality that looks like it is (or has once been) alive. Perhaps you get the feeling that you just missed seeing it move the moment you turn your head. Viewers often want to touch the work to follow its curves, relating to it physically as well as visually. If you have looked at a sculpture and feel you want to hug it, or something, or someone then I consider the work a complete success.
Education
1988 – 1990 | University of Chicago MFA Degree – Sculpture |
1985 – 1987 | School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA), Boston Non-degree study of Handmade Papermaking sculpture techniques |
1979 -1981 | Bradley University, (Peoria, IL) Non-degree study of stone sculpture and figure drawing |
1975 – 1979 | Eureka College, (Eureka, Illinois) BA Degree – Art and Mathematics |
Commissions
2025 | “Tending Glacier: Everything changes. Everything Moves.” alabaster sculpture Deborah Daniel Madison, WI |
2021 | “My, she is yar” alabaster sculpture Candace Weber Madison, WI |
2018 | Because You Asked serpentine sculpture Marni Fisher Black Creek, BC, CA |
2013 | Life Is But A Dream alabaster sculpture Katia Marshall & Jeanne Welch Madison, Wisconsin |
2006 | Yuletto yule marble sculpture Karen Combs Grand Junction, CO |
2001 |
The Understanding limestone sculpture Donna Z. Ferne Installed since 2009 in: Stone Quarry Hill Art Park – New York |
2000 | If you only knew, alabaster sculpture Madison, WI |
1998 | As you Wish, onyx sculpture Mary Knotts |
1995 |
Wordess marble sculpture Heidi and Dave Sweet Beaver Dam, WI |
1987 |
“Waterfall” and “Flames” paper sculptures St. Ignatius of Loyola Church at Boston College Boston, MA |
198? |
Untitled, paper sculpture Latitia Blaine Providence, RI |
Exhibitions
2021- present | Josephine Sculpture, Frankfort, Kentucky |
2009- present | Stone Quary Hill Art Park, Cazenovia, New York |
2008 | “What Matters Most?”, group show John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI |
2007 | “Embracing Yin: an exploration of the receptive “, group show Commonwealth Gallery, Madison |
2006 | “Yuletto Bon Voyage ”, Madison |
2005 | “Madison-area Open Art Studios”, Madison |
1999 | “But Yet the Body is His Book”, group show Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago |
1998 | Kissing Girls Productions, group show Sapphire Ballroom, Madison WI |
1997 | Kissing Girls Productions, group show Senior Center, Madison WI |
1992 | “Speak”, group show Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago |
1991 | “Surprise Visit”, one person show Eureka College, Eureka, IL 16th Annual Member’s Show, group show Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago “Animal/ Vegetable/ Mineral”, group show N.A.M.E. gallery, Chicago 1990 “Just Good Art”, group show Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago “Woolworth Show”, group show Holstein Field House, Chicago, IL “MFA 90”, group MFA thesis show Smart Museum at University of Chicago “New Body (of work)”, MFA thesis show University of Chicago “Direct Object/Crafted Image”, group show Ten in One Gallery, Chicago |
1988 | “Vernisage”, one person show Topa Gallery, Burlington, MA |