MARIANNE HORNBUCKLE - SCULPTURE STATEMENT 2012

The sculptures that I make try to tell the story of the humanity, beauty of gesture and detail of unique individuals, in other words, bios. My sculptures are neither idealized nor abstracted; they are close-ups.
The abstract paintings, on the other hand, express zoe – a longer view, the mystery of life, like seeing earth from space. With color and texture, they express symbol and metaphor rather than the personal and specific, and try to make abstract ideas visible on a two dimensional plane.
Zoe and bios both mean life in Greek, but they are not synonymous. Zoe refers to “life in general, without characterization”.  Bios characterizes a specific life, the outlines that distinguish one living thing from another. Bios accommodates the notion of death, that each life has a beginning, middle, and end, that each life contains a story.  Zoe entertains the notion of immortality; it is experienced without end, as infinite life.  Sacred art is zoe-driven; profane art stems from bios. Twyla Tharp speaks of this in her wonderful book, The Creative Habit.
My creative identity in my later years as an artist seems now to stem from both: the abstract painting, from zoe ;  the figurative sculpture, bios.  
“The life that runs through everything is the universe in me.”  ZEN SAYING

January, 2012
M.Hornbuckle 2012