ARTIST'S STATEMENT

I am compelled to make art as I transcend to a place of contentment and peace. I love the thought provoking meditative intensity of carving, yet find the necessary balance by working in two dimensions, primarily in mixed media drawings.

The primal process of stone carving forces me to slow down and connects me to Source. This allows me to explore a deeper part of myself, where the sacredness of my Divine feminine resurfaces, conjuring intimate images of Mother, Mother-and-child motif and anthropomorphic forms.

At times I am distracted by the banality of day to day life, but through the sacredness of the process of stone carving, I realise the honesty which is demanded by the stone. The act of carving creates self-discipline. There is safety and trust in this holy practice and therefore, harmony grows within.

I use a mallet and chisels for hand carving, enjoying the simplicity of the meditative sounds where steel meets stone. I also work with rasps and rifflers for smoothing out roughly chiseled forms and electric cutting tools for taking away larger chunks of stone. Finally, I create a lustre in the stone using diamond-bit polishing pads with water.

I am interested in the natural beauty of my environment which has been heightened by living rurally. I find inspiration in the gentle beauty and luminosity of the landscape where the human body melds with the land expressing infinity where inter-relatedness is evident.

I am interested in the dichotomies within myself, which I explore visually in my work.  The contrast of textures within stone evokes a warming in my heart: the blazing beauty of the intricacies of polished stone’s hidden colours juxtaposed with rough markings made by my tools. This is conveyed well in my stone carvings, "Imminent" and "Inextricably Bound".

I am influenced deeply by the Mother role which has enveloped me for a number of years, hence I have examined the polarizing emotions which stem from that perspective. I delight in the female form and was particularly inspired by my own pregnant body which evoked great and abundant symbolism. Further, I have come to realize, through the exploration of stone carving, the yearnings of my own inner child for my attention and consequent healing. This is evident in the stone carving, "Child Within".

I also have a desire to create more authentically, exploring more deeply my interest in Shamanism which includes witnessing the characteristics and behavior of some animals and how they can further our awareness of ourselves and others. Mostly, what I desire to accomplish as an artist and human being is to fully release my ego and allow the creative flow to move through me wholeheartedly.