New Found Land

Statement

In "New Found Land" I am focused on vulnerability and fragility, creating sculptures out of thin clays and drawings on tissue paper, old Christmas paper and other found ephemera. Some of the tissue paper drawings become wall sculpture as their folds and wrinkling forces the viewer to see them in the third dimension. My working process encourages accidents and these are often left in the pieces as visual reminders of uncertainty and chaos. The pieces are made of a combination of aggressive and violent with controlled and beautiful mark making and sculpting. I am moving towards being even more expressive in the creation of the pieces, allowing for mistakes and accidents and intentionally leaving areas undeveloped. I continue to use chaos contrasted with beauty, which is a constant element in all my artwork.

My working process encourages curiosity and experimentation. I begin by hunting and capturing intriguing images from a variety of sources such as old textbooks, magazines and newspaper photos. The image chosen always evokes a powerful emotional response in me, becoming the iconic subject of the work of art. I explore and manipulate them more deeply by drawing and sculpting them using variety of expressive marks in the appropriate material, scale and color. These initial works become inspiration for fully developed mixed media works on paper, sculptures and site specific installations.

- Cynthia Lahti, November 2005