Artist Statement
For over 18 years I worked on large-scale, oversized, figurative sculptures, using the clay to bronze process. This experience led me to understand the art as well as the challenges and rewards associated with every stage of the lost wax method. The bronze casting process tends to be expensive, whereas you need a foundry to forge the final, heavy, sculpture and scheduled on their availability.
Teaching students to explore art through problem solving, experimentation, collaboration, and mixed media, I observed my community college class improvising with alternative paper for casting their self-portraits, as they used all of their paper supply.
Taking the lead from the students, I started to experiment with the alternative paper source, and found several benefits. The cost of using egg cartons for casting/forging paper is minimal and the eco friendliness addresses our need for an alternative to metals. The visual rewards cannot be understated.
Bernini is my revered sculptor hero. Emotion is rendered in facial expression and body language of his marble figures carved over-life size sculptures.
My Concave/Convex series features facial inversion pieces or concave renderings including patterns our mind assembles, seeing unrelated crevasses and projections from a distance. These concave pieces appear as meaningless shapes. However, as one approaches, a ghostly apparition appears, looking you in the eye and following you and moves at the same time and speed as you. The positive convex faces will always remain fixed in a single expression, while a concave sculpture changes to delight and amaze.
I teach the students a variety of techniques and give them tools to create art without feeling inadequate due to perceived lacking artistic abilities. I share the structure that has checks and balances while guiding students to the level of performance they want to achieve. Each project has steps that make it possible to repeat and create a successful object each time.
Virginia Abbott is a nationally recognized sculptor whose current work addresses variety of environmental issues. She is a member of the prestigious National Sculpture Society.
Native Blue Heron Sculptures
Bethlehem PA Greenway
between Taylor and Webster
between 3rd and 4th Street
Eco Art Commission
