Among these artistic adventures is an unusual soft-sculpture collection — showing how, through textile arts, the turn of colorful pieces of fabric and other materials were transformed into a public statement about how we resist our imposed cultural stories and other discriminatory transgressions, only to break out into expressions of our truer selves. The primary artist’s sculptural renderings offer a running commentary that expresses personal freedom as each form adopts its new self-identity, surfacing from the colors and pieces of the ordinary, with the details that delight, from boot knobs to beaded braids, and all the other embellishments in embroidery, ribbons and paint. Each one is a message for the positive resilience of spirit, until viewers consider its underlying premise — the oppression that the inner self suffers.
The strength of human nature clearly is evident when seeing these soft sculptures together — more than a dozen personalities can come together much like a community of alter-egos, each distinctively appealing and coming to life as if they form a small town of secrets. Take in the angel, the Queen of the Night, and so many more, to see how the diversity brings each a unique persona.
Similar odes to the claims for nonconformity and self-strengths fill novels and poems familiar to most of us since childhood. The fun of the majority of these sculptures is when they can be posed to achieve special effects to send special messages. The original intent was the creation of an exhibit that poses them in groups, in community interchanges, for a gallery bold enough to invest in such a venture.
Sculptures range between 10 to 20 inches tall and are handcrafted, each an original design, and most have wires imbedded for posing. Each is 100% polyester fiber-filled and uses cotton, wool, or acrylic yarns in addition to the noted embellishments.
Most of these soft sculptures explore the portrayals of self-identity through women’s imagery. One exception is the specially featured Ninja Warrior, exclusive and unique. The Ninja Warrior does not have a wire for flexible posing. Its figure, sketched directly on the fabric and then cut as one piece, was specifically designed and posed to honor its warrior spirit.