Eris with the Apple of Discord - Sculpture by Sarah Myers

Eris with the Apple of Discord, Sarah Myers

Eris with the Apple of Discord, Sarah Myers
2018, terracotta

     The precious fruit poised in her hand, she turns, watching for her moment; heavy cloak clutched tightly across her side but right arm lightly lifted to aim. Her eyes glow with a sudden spark…
    In Greek legend, Eris – Discord – stirred by mischief, secretly brings a golden apple inscribed “To the Fairest” with her to a wedding feast on Mount Olympus, and, at the height of the revels, tosses it into the midst of the celebrating deities. The treasure, claimed and counter-claimed by the most powerful goddesses of the Grecian theogony, causes a quarrel which wreaks havoc on the serenity of the divine abode, and this squabble in its turn causes the grief and pain of the Trojan War among mortals far below.
    I have never been able to feel that the gravity of the results could place a greater responsibility Eris than on the other mightier beings that took the conflict so much farther; and her playful objectivity (after all, the apple could have remained hers) gives a certain sympathy to her place in the myth. So I chose this subject in spite of its mischievous, almost militant, nature, as I saw in it the possibility to capture a form I've long wanted to investigate; a sculptural moment that is both the height of action and a point of stillness and suspended motion. Her hand is just at that transition where the impetus will be imparted to the fruit, which will fly from her a fraction of a second later; and in the expression of her wide eyes and slightly parted lips, you can see her thoughts as she both anticipates the result of her deed and already sees it completed in her mind.
    And there is in this sculpture simply the abrupt glimpse of action conceived and taken, perhaps if abstracted into that one fragment of time, a thing that held the good of its own movement and beauty.

Eris, Sarah Myers
detail from below

Eris with the Apple of Discord
impressionistic detail of hand

Eris with the Apple of Discord, Sarah Myers
sculpture from back

Eris, Sarah Myers
detail of face

Eris with the Apple of Discord, Sarah Myers
Sculpture in terracotta

The Cranach Hat - Sculpture by Sarah Myers

The Cranach Hat, Sarah Myers
Contemporary Sculpture in terracotta

    She tilts her head gently to the side, counterbalancing the elaborate flare of her velvet hat. Around her neck cling rich Renaissance jewels; the top of her bodice is embroidered with a scrolling pattern of stylized leaves and stems; a few stray locks of hair escape from her ornate headgear, which is also beaded and jeweled. Her sidelong glance is thoughtful and bright but almost wistful.

     My most recent sculpture was inspired, as its name implies, by the paintings of a great sixteenth-century painter, Lucas Cranach the elder. His vital, energetic but opulent portrayals struck me as perfect source material for a portrait like this one, created in a vivid red-orange terracotta at about half life-scale.

The Cranach Hat, Sarah Myers
Close-up

The Cranach Hat, Sarah Myers
Detail 

The Cranach Hat, Sculpture by Sarah Myers

The Cranach Hat, detail
Sarah Myers

The Cranach Hat, Sarah Myers

Head of a Woman - Sculpture by Sarah Myers

Head of a Woman, Sarah Myers

     Sometimes an artwork contains more than its creative or intellectual history - as in this sculpture, where a wholly unexpected event, an explosion in the kiln, left marks unintended in the original form. It still seems odd to think of so tranquil a personage flying apart while surrounded by white-hot coils three times the temperature of a baking-oven; but such was the case.
     As she now stands she is not only the outcome of creation and catastrophe but also some gentle remedying. Several days ago I placed the two largest pieces back together as best I could. Though some chips and ceramic splinters remain missing, as they had pulverized, she now appears much as she was first intended; a peaceful, heart-shaped face, the tilted head poised on a long, graceful neck. Half-classical, half modern; and now, with the fracture lines of her mishap - where no mending could conceal the warp produced by a fire of 1260 degrees celsius – perhaps a little post-modern as well.

Head of a Woman, Sarah Myers
Front, close-up

Head of a Woman, Sarah Myers
Sculpture in stoneware

Head of a Woman, detail.  Sarah Myers 

Head of a Woman, sculpture
Sarah Myers

Head of a Woman, Sarah Myers

Bracelets - Sculpture by Sarah Myers

Bracelets, Sarah Myers
Sculpture in pale terracotta

     She leans forward on the palms of her hands; elaborate bracelets encircle her wrists and her dress front is shaped like a great bow which is echoed by the ribbon perched atop her hair. But her gaze is full of thought, reflective, quiet, contrasting with the extravagance of her clothes and jewellery…

     I created this piece some years ago, using a pale pink terracotta that gives a life-like effect. The composition is a very stable triangle from all sides, with small, lively edges, such as the corners of the hair-bow, the flaring bodice, lines of the bracelets and the very strong direction of the gaze emerging from the three-sided structure to give the sculpture vitality and energy.

Woman with Bracelets, Sarah Myers
Detail of face

Bracelets, Sarah Myers
Sculpture

Renaissance Condottiere - Sculpture by Sarah Myers

Condottiere, Sarah Myers
Sculpture in stoneware

Condottiere, Sarah Myers
Contemporary sculpture

     This Renaissance warrior in an impressive helmet may look slightly familiar from a profile among the incredible drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci. My sculpture of some years ago, along with being created in the round, also differs from the Old Master's sketch in the height of the crested helm, which more closely resembles Spanish armour from fifty to a hundred years later. But the scowling, proud profile gazing from under the beaked visor bears a very close likeness, as do the fantastic animals which adorn the front of the burgonet and the breastplate.

     With these photographs I am revisiting a piece produced almost a decade ago. Some things I might do a little differently now, such as reducing the startling size of my signature. But I remain as intrigued by the Da Vinci design as ever, which indeed has been a source of excitement since I first found it in a child's book of Leonardo's art many years earlier still, where the drawing was printed in the small volume I looked at practically before I could read. And the sculpture itself is a solid presence that continues to fill its space admirably, I believe, and one that I remain pleased with as it stares out at me, gaze unchanging, from under the shade of its formidable helmet.  

  

Condottiere, Sarah Myers, detail in monochrome

Condottiere, Sarah Myers
Close-up.  Sculpture in stoneware.

Flowers for a Sculpture - Sarah Myers

Sculpture with flowers, Sarah Myers
Terracotta "Woman with a Bowl", roses, lavender, bougainvillea

       Rich apricot blooms, exquisite purple-pink roses much tinier, and sprigs of lavender – all flowers from my sister's desert garden – mingle with bougainvillea and dark orange-tree leaves from our orchard. The fragrant bouquet fills the bowl of my terracotta sculpture; with assured dignity she carries the autumn wealth of the garden poised lightly on her head. The light makes stars and streams in long beams through the dark, intricate lattice-work of a handmade screen from India, while under the sculpture's feet, where her long skirts sweep the ground, are the delightfully bright tiles, orange, green, blue, of a small table from Mexico. In these images you are seeing a corner of our home in the desert.

  

Terracotta sculpture with bowl full of roses and lavender

Flower arrangement, sculpture.  Sarah Myers

Sculpture in my home, Sarah Myers
Terracotta figure, arrangement of roses and lavender, Indian screen and tiled Mexican table.

Woman with a Mirror - Sculpture by Sarah Myers

Woman with a Mirror, Sarah Myers

      Quietly she looks down at the small mirror in her right hand; her left hand holds her loosely twisted hair atop her head. It is a passing moment; the downward glance, the strands of hair wrapped through the fingers, the tranquil expression that is almost, but not quite, a smile.

    I created this art some years ago, trying to capture an action so reserved and so transient that, in the silent calm of a sculpture, it could become timeless.     

Woman with a Mirror, Sarah Myers.  Detail.

Woman with a Mirror, Sarah Myers

Woman with a Mirror.  Left side.

Woman with a Mirror, detail.  Sarah Myers.

Lady with Plumes - Sculpture by Sarah Myers

Lady with Plumes and a Basket, Sarah Myers
Sculpture in terracotta

     She arrives with a curved basket, full of spring brilliance, and with a cluster of tall plumes twisted into her hair. Her eyes are thoughtful, her head tilted elegantly toward her armful of new flowers.

    My latest sculpture, she is formed from vivid red terracotta and was finished with about a day's worth of work, keeping the spontaneity of her creation through to her kiln-fired completion. Now she is bringing you a bouquet of blooms from the garden – jasmine, bougainvillea, pelargonium, nasturtium and long sprays of lavender.

Lady with Plumes and a Basket, Sarah Myers

Lady with Plumes and a Basket, Sarah Myers
Detail of face

Lady with Plumes and a Basket, Sarah Myers

Lady with Plumes and a Basket, Sarah Myers
All photography and flower arrangement by the Artist

Lady with Plumes and a Basket, Sarah Myers
Face

Lady with Plumes and a Basket, Sarah Myers

Lady with Plumes and a Basket, Sarah Myers
Flower arrangement and photography by the Artist

Woman with a Small Bird - Sculpture by Sarah Myers

Woman with a Small Bird, Sarah Myers
Sculpture in terracotta

She looks at the small bird held lightly, carefully, in the palm of her hand. The bird gazes back, its head slightly turned to catch her in its view.

   The woman sits with one knee drawn up, the other leg bent as she sits on the ground; her long skirts fall in heavy folds around her. Many elements are meant to convey a connection, over the millennia, with the bright, gentle spirit of the Tanagra figures from ancient Greece. But though she is of the same lively orange-red earth – terracotta clay, full of iron, that can be found across the globe – and though she sits so still - motionless, with her tiny finch that never flies away - she is from a much younger world, the one that belongs to you and me...

  

Woman with a Small Bird, Sarah Myers
Detail

Woman with Small Bird, Sarah Myers
Left side

Woman with Small Bird, Sarah Myers
Right Side

Woman with Small Bird, Sarah Myers
Detail

Woman with a Small Bird, Sarah Myers
Close-up

Woman with a Small Bird
Sculpture by Sarah Myers