Go Figure

Carla says about her work…

“Everyone has their favorite great artists and I personally have a lot of envy for them (the great artists). They are blessed with the ability to work hard exploring techniques and developing the skills to bring their spectacular visions into being. Many times I wish theirs was the work I made then I figured out a way it can be, albeit on a different scale.

The artists work I generally employ in my figurine scale vignettes are artists whom I have had friendships with (well except in the obvious cases of artists like Michelangelo and DaVinci) or at least short encounters, which amuse me or create a lasting impression. Their work creeps into my imagination mingling with others work and engaging in — perhaps — uncharacteristic behaviors. Inspired by the personality of the maker and my relationship to them and emerging in the physical form of their artwork but on my terms.

Copying the work of the Masters, contemporary or historical, has always been an instrument of art eduction.  When I copy or incorporate aspects of others artwork into mine I examine it much more closely and thus extract more meaning and a deeper appreciation of the work. From this there is the opportunity to have it presented to my imagination in dialogue with some unexpected compatriots.

One of the figures most consistently present in my work is me as a child in my first Holy Communion veil and white cotton children’s underpants. First Holy Communion is a Catholic ritual where a child reaches a certain age when they are considered ready to participate in this important element of the Catholic mass and faith. This age is a time in a person’s development when they have developed more awareness of the fact that they are not the center of the universe and have the ability to understand more abstract ideas of sin.  So this personal caricature represents this transition in my life and embraces the behavior of rebellion.

I have chosen porcelain as my primary medium.  It is a type of clay that is traditionally associated with luxury, wealth and fineness. Nineteenth century Parian Ware figurines were made of unglazed porcelain to suggest the famous marble used for sculpture in Classical Greece. They made imagery from popular public sculpture and famous paintings more readily available at a miniaturized scale for the home.  Figurines of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries depicted light-hearted genre scenes as well as historical subjects.  My figures play on the viewer’s expectation of the medium by inserting complex and personal psychological content into the decorative realm of the figurine.”