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Inspiration, Materials and Techniques
Influenced by the writers Joseph Campbell (The Power of Myth) and Gaston Bachelard (The Poetics of Space), Cheryl Tall creates sculpture driven by her own personal mythology.
Tall works with a soft responsive clay that encourages repetitive shingle like finger marks. This unique texture serves to unite her body of work and gives her characters an otherworldly look that can suggest armor, petals or scales.
Because of the softness of the clay, only 5" can be built in a day. She builds the clay slowly, working in an spiral coil-pinch technique until the need for a separate layer is reached. At this time, she will create a lego-like connector on the inside of the piece so it can go apart and come
back together. After the building is complete, the sculpture must be dried, coated with powdered copper and terra sigillata, and fired 14 hours in a kiln. Sometimes additional firings are needed, so the whole process can take from 6 weeks to 3 months.
The resultant surfaces resemble a richly textured abstract painting. The colors are subtle, reminiscent of lichen covered stone and ancient tapestries. The sculptures are very contemporary in subject matter, yet have a feeling of 'history', almost as though they were created years ago by an unknown civilization.
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