"My work has been influenced by abstract biomorphic sculpture originally created by the 20^th century Surrealists. A biomorph is a non-representational form or pattern that resembles a living organism, either plant or animal, in shape or appearance. “Bio” comes from the Greek word for “living being” and “morph” from the Greek word meaning “form.” In the 1990’s the subject of my biomorphic work often alluded to the ideas of hybridization and “weird science” Since then, my work, while still informed by organic abstraction and issues of biological manipulation, contain more elements from my daily life and reflect the importance of place in providing inspiration.

In this work, rather than creating forms that are based on scientific fantasy, I am synthesizing and abstracting various elements from around me. These elements then lead to the creation of new forms, which seem to have an animate presence. Some contributing elements are living beings, such as the birds and rabbits in the woods behind my house, while other elements are the inanimate decorative buildings and architectural elements in my new city. The surface of the work reflects my love of mark making and patterning, and I think of these surfaces as the “skin” of the bimorphs. This surface patterning also reflects my love of the decorative, and it acknowledges the influence of the Pattern and Decoration Movement of the 1970’s.

Jean Arp, who began as a surrealist sculptor, shared with many artists of his time the inclination toward not wanting “to copy nature” i.e., produce realistic still life, landscapes, or figures. The abstract impulse in the art of Arp’s time was, as he said, a “wish to not reproduce but to produce”…. to create something from ones’ own unique experiences. This wish to produce rather than reproduce is an impulse I share in this work. The slow process of using clay coils to build a form and the slow surface techniques I use-- slip trailing, sgraffito, and inlay, allow me time to reflect and invent and to dialogue with the piece.

I think my earlier career as a potter and my exploration of the vessel is also evident in these forms. I was always drawn to vessel shapes, particularly bottle forms, baskets, and vase forms with handles. In truth I never really cared about their function so much, but I loved the sinuous curve, the shapes of the negative space, and the manner in which pots were anthropomorphized. In pottery lingo, pots have lips, feet, shoulders, bellies and necks. The nature of a vessel is that of containing, nurturing, and carrying out various domestic functions; activities that carry social and cultural significance. In this work, I have sealed, altered and re-contextualized the vessel, creating a sculptural object that is both referential and conceptual." - Melody Evans