LOLITA SAPRIEL, LCSW
“I AM INTERESTED IN HUMAN EMOTIONS, TRANSFORMED BY MEMORY AND EXPRESSED IN FORM”
I was born in Cairo, Egypt and moved to the United States as a child. My passion for Ancient Egyptian and Greek archaeology started early, and my work has been substantially influenced by ancient Egyptian, Greek and Cycladic art. I have pursued my love of sculpture my entire life, first casting in bronze and later, carving in stone.
Small Marble Head
(Marble Base, 5” High x 4” Wide x 4” Deep)
Stones were among the earliest tools and weapons, as well as being part of the earliest human artistic communication. Prehistoric cave painters often incorporated the actual shape and texture of the rock into their paintings to portray their image, thus giving it a three dimensional quality. The drawings inside the ancient tombs in the pyramids also are carved directly into the stone.
I don’t work from photographs or drawings, and generally don’t have a preconceived idea before I start a piece. Rather I let the stone guide me in what is essentially a non-verbal conversation. Each stone has its own shape, roughness, color and texture, and these variations become an integral part of each sculpture. I am drawn to the contrast between the rough unfinished stone, which evokes a sense of something unnamed, raw, invisible, and the smooth, polished emerging form, conveying a sense of harmony and wholeness.
I use a combination of power tools and hand tools, preferring to finish each piece by hand. The sanding, filing and polishing finishing process itself is a slow and meditative aspect of the work, and touching the stone directly is important to me.
Much as an archaeologist uncovers ancient strata going back in time, my sculptures are an attempt to convey timelessness and time. We are simultaneously inhabited by a sense of past, present and future. The abstract quality of some of my forms feels contemporary, but the more representational images in the sculptures feel ancient.