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

A Small Sculpture, Kneeling Woman - Sarah Myers

Kneeling Woman, Sarah Myers
Sculpture in stoneware

  She kneels back on her heels, her arms outstretched to catch a garland of silver chain or whatever is placed in her delicate fingers. She looks down – intent and tranquil at the same time, head turned a little aside.

    This tiny sculpture is barely 13 cm high, its details formed with a gentleness appropriate to its size; but in the stretch and the simplicity of position there is a hint of monumentality, and it makes her, for a moment's glance, a real statue expressing her own quiet vitality and gravity.

Kneeling Woman, Sarah Myers
Detail of back.

Kneeling Woman, Sarah Myers

Kneeling Woman, side
Sarah Myers

Kneeling Woman, Sarah Myers

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.

A Favourite Sculpture - Art by Sarah Myers

Minerva in Pearls, Sarah Myers

With her gentle smile, lowered eyes, pearl necklace and tall helmet, this sculpture remains one of my favourites I have made, and my largest. She is life-scale or perhaps a little more.

Minerva in Pearls, Sarah Myers
Close-up

She was inspired from a sixteenth-century portrait of a young Dutch woman, Margarita Trip. The artist Ferdinand Bol dressed her in costume as Minerva and portrayed Margarita teaching her younger sister Maria Trip. I think in my sculpture I have used the mythological reference slightly more seriously and as a more intregal part - not indeed as homage to the Greek deity Athena (Minerva), but abstractly in praise of wisdom and the wisdom of elder sisters in particular.

Minerva in Pearls, Sarah Myers
Sculpture in stoneware

A sculpture this size takes a huge amount of clay. In this case, she consists of stoneware I mixed by hand and kneaded carefully to remove air pockets. The recipe was designed by my sister Amy Myers - it is a clay of some resistance and strength even in its raw form. The sculpture was then built over a period of three days. I work directly into the clay with a rapidity which is partly to avoid the damage that too-early drying can create, but also to preserve the spontaneity and immediacy of the human touch.

Minerva in Pearls, side view

    All art and photography by Sarah Myers

Minerva in Pearls, Sarah Myers
Detail of face and helmet

Minerva in Pearls, Sarah Myers

Dancer with Flowers - Sculpture by Sarah Myers

Dancer for flowers, Sarah Myers

My new sculpture holds overflowing flowers in her hands and on her head. Made in stoneware for just these kinds of bouquets, she glances up at the blooms above her with a happy expression and sways lightly as if beginning to dance with the flowers.

Arrangement and photography by the artist.

Dancer for flowers, detail
Sarah Myers

Dancer for flowers, Sarah Myers

Bouquet detail
Sarah Myers

Dancer, flowers
Sarah Myers

Sarah Myers
Dancer for flowers.  Arrangement and photography by the Artist.

Basket Bearer, Sculpture by Sarah Myers

Basket Bearer, Sarah Myers
Stoneware

Sculpture, imaginary portrait, and vessel all in one, the Basket Bearer's tranquil quiet is changeless. With fruit in the basket-bowl balanced atop her head, she figures as a centerpiece expressing abundance and natural riches.

Basket Bearer in profile
Sarah Myers

Basket Bearer, detail

Basket Bearer, Sarah Myers

Frontal view

In profile

Basket Bearer
Sculpture in stoneware, Sarah Myers

Wine-Coloured Chrysanthemums

Chrysanthemums, Desert Branches in a Pitcher
Photography by Sarah Myers

Great, glowing burgundy chrysanthemums, placed in a graceful pitcher - a form inspired by an ancient Greek shape, the oinochoe, and created by Amy Myers.  Photography by Sarah Myers.

Wine-coloured Chrysanthemums
Photography, Sarah Myers

Still-Life Photograph

Evening Still-Life, S. Myers   Photograph, 2013

   Geraniums and jade-plant flowers in a vase I created years ago make a tiny bouquet in my bedroom window.