Sara Lee D'Alessandro

Artist's Statement:

Clay has always been my primary medium.  It has been a dance of over forty years.  Clay offers qualities no other media offers.  These qualities which keep me enthralled are: the ability to convey motion and flux, the capacity for great textural involvement, the rendering of “pulse,” immediacy, and it’s light absorbing quality.   Clay is a physical manifestation of the maw of time.  It is a sensory organ of the earth.
I like working large, free from the table top.  Scale is large not monumental. Personable scale with the sculpture standing on the ground creates a “tableaux vivants” experience, with viewers becoming part of the installation.  Installations are usually in groups, although, occasionally a sculpture is shown individually.  Each sculpture is a unique, that is to say “one of a kind.”
The form is organic, not idealized. They rise up from the ground,  yearning.  Surfaces are highly textured to be light responsive.  Outside installations animate as shadows move with the shifting arc of the sun..  Terra cotta, properly installed, is immensely suitable for outdoors. See installation notes on web site:  www.saradalessandro.com

I want my sculpture to impart a sense of being inhabited.   They are spirit vessels