I don't know when the urge to create began. It has always been there from earliest memory. It started with painting and drawing, but once I discovered sculpture and particularly clay, over twenty years ago, I was totally obsessed. There is a prose poem by Byrd Baylor that states, "Clay remembers the hands that made it." I love the fact that you connect directly with the clay with your fingers and it responds like a living thing. Although many images inspire me and I sculpt a variety of subjects, the image of the horse and women's stories are my passion.

In 1996, after many years as an educator, administrator and part-time artist, I made the commitment to devote all of my resources to sculpture. I moved to join my new husband on a farm in the Tennessee mountains. I took with me my horse, Rusty for inspiration. I use the image of the horse in my sculpture to represent many things both subconscious and mythological. The horse represents power and grace, but has historically also represented life's journey toward death. My intention is not to create a "realistic" portrayal of a horse, but to explore the gesture, the moment, that special emotional connection that women seem to have for the horse. Ancient Chinese and Etruscan images of the horse have strongly influences my stylized creations.

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I use a variety of construction techniques. My pieces are mainly coil built, but slab methods and solid modeling (with subsequent hollowing of the shape) are also employed. I smoke-fire, raku, saggar-fire or glaze the sculpture depending on the desired finish. I am especially drawn to smoke and saggar firing because of the added life the fire imparts to the image. No matter how excited I may be about a finished sculpture, there is always an overwhelming sense of anticipation about the next one to grow out of the clay.

www.wildhorsesinc.com

Sparta, TN

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