Introduction to the Mantua ladies

---

Materials

The Mantua Ladies are created in cone 10 stoneware clay called WSO by Laguna Clay. I hand build from the bottom up and let the slump and hardening of the clay dictate the form. I start with an intuitive idea and then just work with the various stages of the clay. I usually use a Chinese porcelain veneer over the stoneware when it is in the green ware stage of drying and then apply slips with stains on top of the porcelain. I then fire to bisque and then apply a clear lead crackle fire to cone 10 and sometimes use an addition layer of china paint at cone 018.

as I create the “Mantua Ladies” is to focus on a time in history, say the Tudor age of Henry the VIII, Thomas Cromwell and Anne Boleyn. By intuitively studying a point in history or certain individuals, I create an art object relative to my reflection. The nuance of my artistic output is historical, cultural and feminine in nature.

I create for creation’s sake and guide my muse with the sharpness of both my human intellect and a keen reflection on the cultural Aesthetics of the English Art and Design Movement of the Pre-Rafaelite Brotherhood.

I am inspired by historical research into the “purely human” aspect of creativity. But if it were all “Art for Art’s sake” we would express ourselves as children or primitives. I use my education and art experience as a vehicle to travel through time.

I am a time traveler, I am an investigative journalist searching for the perfect match of beauty and pure intelligence, for a sensual union of critical thinking and primitive beauty all set outside the boundaries of dogma and yet within the sphere of the rational brain.

I allow my contemporary consciousness to change the nature of what I find into a hybrid of sorts. My feminine figures fit only into the world of imagination rather than their place of origin or the current time.

I have a terminal degree in the studio arts and consider myself educated in the new science of aesthetic anthropology with an emphasis based in the studio arts.

Lastly, although America is my Alma Mater, England formed my unique perspective and undying love of aesthetic anthropology and critical thinking.