STATEMENT

My sculpture addresses two directions. My personal works are found in one area, some of which are highly stylized and relate to the human figure. The other area contains my portraits and public commissions.

In the 1960s, I was very active in the anti-war civil rights movement. The titles I gave my works reflect those times, for example, Shelter, Threatening Bureaucrat, and Flayed Skull. Since that time, while pursuing the ideas presented in a large body of work entitled Confined Woman, my work has become more complicated symbolically, so I decided to abandon highly specific titles.

Female imagery signifies the human condition. Women not only conceive life but carry this new life and are provided with the means of directly caring for life after birth. Although I use female imagery, these works are androgynous in the larger context. They represent human symbols trapped and isolated, yet potent and triumphant.

– Tony Paterson