Artist Jeanne Kidd

I made my first real sculpture in a college art class. Unable to walk away from the sensual experience of creating art by removing material rather than adding it, I stayed up all night working on my first stone sculpture.

Since then, I have worked with a variety of mediums—painting, drawing, pottery—but my heartfelt passion remains three-dimensional work, with an abiding love for stone sculpting. I love the physically challenging, deeply intimate, and often spiritual experience of losing myself for hours in the process of carving. It requires a combination of physical strength and force of will, balanced with patience and sensitivity to the form and material.

No matter which medium I work in, the creation process for me involves complete immersion and interaction with the material. How does it feel to work with? What colors are emerging? What sensations do I want to express? How do light and shadow interact in the piece? I strive towards creating work that flows from all sides, feels good, and hopefully inspires others to want to reach out to touch.

Creating art that feels soft, warm, or inviting from materials that are technically cold and hard is a mysteriously sensual process that thrills me.