OUR STORY
Diane Black
Artist Statement
In its essence, my work is about story telling; both those taken from my own experience and those that the viewer conjures in response to the work. Humour is often used to break down barriers, or as a portal through which I invite deeper meanings and connections to surface. Likewise, animals often appear in my sculptures to represent an aspect of humanity in a symbolic way.
My process of sculpting in clay is not carefully planned leaving me free to respond to whims or changes in direction that more authentically reflect the message I am trying to convey or the story I am telling. This spontaneous approach allows me to work quickly in the initial stages, giving the pieces a feeling of immediacy and intimacy. That being said, I can often spend a disproportionate amount of time working on an expression or subtle gesture. Being able to form a lump of clay into a figure which then conveys emotion is endlessly appealing to me. I believe it speaks to how much of our experience is shared and the power of non-verbal communication.