This sculptural artwork has emerged like most of my work, intuitively. This means that I do not have a plan or predetermined idea of what the final product is going to be when it is finished. I simply begin to work and let the clay speak to me.
In this particular case, the process was different, I had an instructor speak to me. I was taking a class at The Armory Art Center and he began to direct us in a step by step process of how to hand build a figure. A process that I found very enlightening since some of his techniques were new to me. At the end of the class when students had completed a torso and head, he said to us to think about what the figure would be doing or holding so we could work on that the following class. That’s when I panicked a little. I thought this was a class where we would follow instructions step by step all the way to the end. So there I had a half built torso that did not seem my own, but now it was mine to finish.
On my drive home, I thought of all the possible things this man could hold, from balls, to toys, to a hat, but none of those ideas matched the personality of the man. Around that time, there were news about corporate giants crushing efforts made by smaller companies. Large nations using their power to manipulate smaller countries. Ecosystems breaking down due to our negligence and greed. The kind of news that makes you think not one person can make a difference and the future seems dismal. As I was contemplating all of this information, a sudden thought came to me… This man would make a statement about the imbalance caused by our continuous aim to attain more money and power. “The big fish, eats the little fish”, except that in this case, the natural cycle of life cannot take place because mankind intercedes and disrupts this cycle taking both the small fish and the big fish!
During the next class, I worked diligently at developing the “Big Fish, Little Fish” idea. I began to work with some refinements and it was during that time that the man’s head seemed to be missing something. Yes, hair, but this was meant to be a hairless man. This man needed to stay a little unattractive. Again, from my intuition…the idea of a boat emerged, but not just any boat, a paper boat. A paper boat that is not permanent just like we are not permanent on this planet, yet our impact on it is.
I use symbolism in my figurative sculpture work, but to most people is just a fisherman with a paper boat on his head. I hope you enjoy the images above that shows the progression of the fisherman sculpture.