Sharon Loper Statement

Sharon Loper
2010


When I begin a project, thought is number one, research is number two, sketches number three and then comes the hard part which is putting matter to hand and hand to thought.

My view is that all art is transitory, which would include material such as bronze, stone, wood, and etcetera. Science tells us that our planet at some time will be reclaimed by the cosmos and the energy of universal forces.

I think of my sculpture as landscapes of thought based on organic principles. The work itself deals with human and animal forms and at times the energy of trees and plants, as seen in the solar etchings of trees. I used Chinese celebration money; the technique is called chine collee, to illustrate the celebration of life. Solar etchings are non-toxic and do not involve products detrimental to the atmosphere, the plates are exposed by the sun.

The artist has a responsibility to be honest with the viewer. In my case, I chose to communicate by utulizing both visual and ephemeral, that which is seen by the eye and that which is perceived through the senses. This allows the viewer to become a part of the art, a social communication of the now.

You can look at the work from two different perspectives, on the one hand, relating to expressionism, which initially was a cultural movement originating in Germany. The expressionist artist sought to express the meaning of "being alive", a movement of poetry, painting, sculpture, and the arts in general, the emotional experience rather than physical reality.

On the other hand, you can view the work as visionary. That which addresses the connection between organic, animal, human and how we relate individually to the planet that sustains us. I view these perspectives as one and the same connecting thought and matter, one relying on the other for totality.

© Sharon Loper 2024