Roots

Sculptures by Nancy Mahoney

April 30 - May 11, 2012

Augusta Savage Gallery
 

Nancy Mahoney creates sculptures from polymer clay baked onto sapling roots and finished with acrylic paints, wax, hair, and natural materials. About her work the artist says: “I worked as a potter for many years then switched my focus when I started teaching art in an elementary school. My own work resurfaced in 2005. A chance meeting, a gift of a very odd carrot, a good question from a friend, music, and a studio overlooking gardens and endless trees...all provoked a curiosity about what we don't always get to see below the surface. I work with sapling roots; the roots are always taken from young trees that are not growing properly. The roots fill my studio, rhythmic and interesting. I listen to music and wait. Then the music evokes emotions that take over and the forms emerge. Sometimes it feels completely out of my control... I just let them happen.”