Master Sculptor

       Artist's Statement

Being a romantic, my art is meant to inspire,  to free the imagination and to bring beauty into the world.  Sculpting is a spiritual experience for me, an intuitive process in which I lose all tract of time in that momentary connection with the Divine.  The fine detailing and anatomical correctness of my sculpture requires a high visual sense but I also work kinesthetically, my hands just seem to know what to do with this magical substance called clay.

It became obvious at a very early age that I was destined to be an artist.  I earned a Master of Arts degree and was an accomplished painter for the first fifteen plus years of my career.  However, my artistic direction changed more than a decade ago when a company asked if I could sculpt the subject matter from one of my paintings.  Within an hour of sculpting I was hooked.  I thought I would paint for the rest of my life, but for the past twelve years I haven't lifted a paintbrush since picking a piece of clay!  It was like coming home....  There was no fear, no right or wrong, only pure joy. 

The timing of this newly found medium for my artistic expression couldn't have been better.  In the past decade we have entered a period of beautiful art being in demand once again.  A rapidly growing segment of serious art collectors and fine art galleries have shifted their focus away from the depressingly sterile, angry, disconnected art popular in the latter half of the last century.  We now see glorious paintings by Jose Royo, Pino, Manuel Nunez, Felix Mas, Fidel Garcia and dozens of others filling the galleries and being highly sought after.  This new poetic realism in art celebrates life, connection, femininity, and the beauty of the human form.  It is a wonderful time to be a romantic figurative sculptor.

Being very detail oriented, I enjoy and am intimately involved in all aspects of the bronze process; chasing my own waxes, overseeing the fine finishing of the bronze metal and working closely with my patina artist.  I am particularly delighted with the exquisite "fancy" patinas we have been able to achieve on the Royal Faerie bronze series.  These highly complex and original sculptures were crying out for a unique and dramatic patina.  We answered their call with a gorgeous combination of transparent, opaque and iridescent patinas with highly polished bronze jewels and accents.  The results are simply stunning!

My Royal Faerie sculptures are now also being cast in Fine Art Acrylic-Lucite.  This frosted and clear Lalique-like material is a perfect medium for my latest series of sculptures.   These whimsical and unique Royal Faeries are the most complex sculptures created in the medium of acrylic-Lucite since its inception in the 1970's.  They are not the usual embedment of faces and bodies in large blocks of acrylic, they are instead, fully formed 'light beings', delicate and etherial as Faeries should be.  As one magazine editor wrote, "First there was Hart, then Wilkenson, and now, there is Slater.

How incredibly blessed I feel to be endowed with this creative gift and to be able to devote the rest of my life to it. 

Paula B. Slater, M.A.