Sculpting like a painter
Written in April 2010 while making the piece ‘Her’
https://carolpeace.com/work/her-lifesize
Sculpting like a painter
Anish Kapoor says that he is a ‘ painter working as a sculptor ‘.
I think I would like to be a painter.
The reason I think I would like to be a painter at the moment is about illusion.
I envy the painters ability to escape the reality, the fudging of life, the missing information, an open weave to let the viewer in. Clarity appears only in small traces, like in life when clear thoughts appear, they are potent.
I looked back into my sketchbook to find the quote about Anish Kapoor from a recent trip to the Guggenheim. He says ‘art is illusion, it’s the illusion that goes deeper to the real’.
For now, my illusion is the illusion I see in painting, in thick oil paint.
Is this possible within the three dimensions of clay?
With my work you walk round the back………a painting of a head has no back and does not need one. But the last few days I have found a bit of peace with this issue and perhaps a way of remaining a sculptor.
The clay is so like oil paint, always has been. So like charcoal, the image is there and then it’s gone. It is easy to pile on, scrape off, smudge, fudge. So I have to rely on surface like a painter does. Be a sculptor, but my paint is clay.
