"Women in a Sauna" bronze

Artists are often asked to supply an Artist’s Statement in preparation for a gallery showing of their work. My statement, though applied to sculpture, applies also to my writing, and more broadly, might apply to any artist striving to “make sense of it all.”

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Artist’s Statement:

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My work is about people: how they look, how they act; how they endure hardship and celebrate joy; how they find meaning and truth in their lives. The landscape of people is a dramatic terrain, full of vitality, often funny, sometimes sad, but like the weather, always changing. I change too as I try to make sense of it all.

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Artists seem compelled to transfer their thoughts, perceptions and insights to some tangible material. As if the ephemeral nature of these things cannot be contained solely in the mind but must be transferred to object form: from the subjective to the objective and from self to others. Is this sharing of thought, perception and insight generosity or is it self-aggrandizement to believe that others care to receive these pearls of wisdom? I suppose conjecture of this sort is appropriate, but the truth is, the artist doesn’t have a choice. The sad (or brilliant) truth is that keeping it all to oneself is not an option for the artist. Options are cerebral matters. Keeping your options open is adult advice we’ve absorbed since childhood, choosing a college, a major, a career, a job, a mate. Creating art necessitates the cerebral but the process emanates from other sources, from inspection and introspection, from personal and vicarious experiences, from visceral feelings of pain and joy.

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And then there is the compulsion to produce. It is simply not enough to perceive and feel and intuit for these sensual and emotional energies wreak havoc upon you until they are transformed into a material essence that can be looked upon (and, if you are lucky, shared). The artistic process in whatever medium chosen requires physical and mental energy, commitment of time and resources, and priorities. No wonder so many artists end up badly. For all the while the grand rapids of this energy is coursing through you, you must maintain the time, resources and priorities to put it to use. And if you can’t and it tears at you and you’ve run the gambit of pinning your anger on others, you have no recourse but to blame yourself and we all know anger at oneself is the hardest.

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So why do we make art? The rewards offered by the world are few for all the time and resources spent. Recognition is hard to come by and the significant others around you give you no credit for creating pie in the sky when you should be changing the linens. But the printed words, the sculptural images, the choreographed dance, the painted still life emerging on the easel, each is testament to an original something that did not exist before you came on the scene. Indeed, what a life it is while artistic creation is in progress. What a spiritual gift it is to engage in this transference from subjective insight to objective productivity. No matter the energy spent, the resources needed and the every-day duties and luxuries put aside, no artist would choose to give it up.

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Not that they have a choice.

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Thanks for reading JWorld Café, the Poetica Magazine Blog

Judith Peck, Ed.D., Guest Blogger

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Judith Peck is a sculptor, author and full professor of art at Ramapo College of New Jersey in Mahwah, NJ. Her sculpture is included in over 80 public and private collections including the Yale Gallery of Art. Recently four over life-size figures, titled “Ladies of Steel,” were displayed on Dag Hammarskjold Plaza in New York. Dr. Peck is the author of several books on artistic activities, including Sculpture as Experience 2nd Edition, most of which are available at www.iapbooks.com.  Her sculpture can be viewed at www.judithpeck.com. Women, from youth through aging, comprise a large component of her sculptural themes. The feature “A Woman’s World” can be viewed at http://www.judithpeck.com/special_exhibit/special_exhibit.html  - Linda Pressman, Blog Editor