Artist Statement

Artist Statement


Tricia1I create two and three dimensional art that is inspired by prehistoric female symbols.  Some of the materials I use are heavy, solid and opaque, yet, I believe the art has air and atmosphere.  Other mediums are fluid, transparent and subtle.  The surface of my work and the hues of my palette are an integral part of my language, as the symbol prevails.  The ancient female sculptures are repeated onto a burnt sienna, copper, textured canvas.  The images are documentary, seem filled with immanence, suspended in time and space, while attempting to rid the artist’s traces from the surface.  My art integrates subject matter and historical narrative with myth and metaphor in a way that reverberates both backward and forward in time.  There is a mystery about the past, its ancient sites, temples, symbols and artifacts.  Archaeological remains of many prehistoric cultures provide abundant evidence of belief in the female as sacred.  For me, it is not simply a matter of making art, it is about the art of discovery, linking the past to the future in a continuing cycle of experience.  It is about what has been forgotten and what we choose to remember.  It is extraordinary how many ancient symbols and images have survived, revealing themselves again and again throughout history and in contemporary art. Ancient images are a catalyst for future knowledge.

I consider my art to be a dialogue, while attempting to invoke tradition, paying homage to the prehistoric female and renewing her in a light of contemporary experience.  The poetry of Anne Sexton has also had a significant influence upon my work.  Her poetry speaks of compelling and passionate truths.  Sexton was labeled a confessional poet, but considered herself a storyteller first.  Artists are also telling stories through their art.  Sexton hungered for salvation, her desire and frustration in reaching out for the divine.  Her poetry offers me ways of exploring the importance and elements of both the origin of ourselves and of art history.

My passion for the ancient, sculpted symbols took me to Italy and then to the islands of Malta in the late 90’s where hundreds of sculptures and etchings have been found depicting women.  The plethora of corpulent female symbols found exemplify a place that created a language through the art of symbol making.  Concentrated within the land of the Maltese Islands, lies a series of monumental temples, built approximately more than five thousand years ago.  Associated with them is a rich material culture, with not only pottery, but limestone sculptures, relief patterns, etchings, vessels and fertility figures.  From the hundreds of artifacts discovered, a female divinity appeared to have been worshipped or celebrated as a life giving source.  What transpired from my experiences in Malta, exhibitions and research, is an ongoing body of art.  Conscious recognition of prehistoric art enables me to make my art viable as commentary in the present world.