Gordy Fine Art and Framing

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Artist Statement

My sculptures and vessels are based on issues that surround the mysteries of existence, human origin and the feminine spirit. In my work I am addressing ideas about human relationships to the natural world and a sense of memory to and about the land.  The work considers both personal and historical relationships to the environment. 

I grew up on a ninety six acre wooded farm in the hills of Western Pennsylvania and my life as a child was divided between physical chores and private wanderings into nature. My parents worked in opposite fields my father taught Biology at Waynesburg College and my mother was a social worker. I am influenced by these spheres of thought the physical sciences and the human psyche.  Science considers the facts and empirical evidence. The psychological aspect explores the mysteries of the human mind and emotions.

My early impressions of the cycles in nature, the layers of the land and what lies beneath it, are the most profound catalysts in my work. My sculptures reference archeological excavations, feminine roles, cycles of renewal and decay, and evolution verse mythic beliefs.  I am exploring views and ideas that revel in life’s mysteries and stir thoughts of becoming and being. My thrown and altered vessels are inspired from Neolithic, Cycladic forms and Art Nouveau and Art Deco glazes. They represent the female as Goddess as the initiator of life and the bringer of forms.

In my sculptures and installations I use a variety of elements as metaphors to represent these mysteries. I combine elements inspired from nature: such as seed pods, flowers and organic forms along with combinations of significant animals and human figures. When seen together these symbols signify different stages of life in flux.

I use animals like chimpanzees to represent my own human alter ego. They symbolize humanities potential and our many flaws. I see them as a bridge between evolution and myth. My new sculptures combine the female form with chickens in a whimsical and autobiographical hybridization, and act as metaphors for nature and life cycles. I use the chickens as a positive metaphor, the egg as a beginning with the chicken’s innate curiosity incorporated into a dancing reflective goddess.

The settings for my forms are female, the earth or a nocturnal dream pond. I use a representation of my farm house and interiors of seed pods to reference the womb. The garden as a setting explores the most important and sacred foundations of my art ideas. It is an environment that initiates ideas of a wondrous and fantastic Eden. It is a physical and a psychological place as well as a point in time. It is a place to ask questions and to consider the intricacy of life’s interrelationships. The garden for me has always had psychological roots to a source, a place of beginning and ending a place of refuge and wonder.