website: www.marthawalker.net

The process of making art is frequently wracked with an obsession to express through visual medium our individuality; our self…some sort of proof that we exist, separate and individually from all others. We declare our unique existence through our work. Mortality defines the ultimate anxiety: with every day that passes, every dawn, the passage of our lives, our aging, is reaffirmed. We move closer to our demise each moment that we live, intensifying our need to produce something that we may leave behind that defines our selves. Time is the ultimate commodity. What takes time to produce is a reflection of the passage of our lives. Our obsession to produce some mark that is clearly our own is at the heart of the creative impulse.

Working for hours on end with a torch and molten metal, flowing orange, and shooting sparks like exploding lava, has a hypnotic effect. Time both stands still and intensifies. I am meditating and still, yet aware of the passage of the time I must spend to produce these large forms, built by adding one drop of metal upon another, as if it were wax, evolving bit by bit into a body of work that represents my life, my reality; my world.

The resulting abstract forms, flowing metal frozen by the natural cooling process, are my way of giving homage to the medium in which I work. They represent my personal statement, derived from my own subliminal images. These organic looking objects, at once aquatic and microbiological, are testimony to the repetitious nature of the universe, from the structure of the atom to the formation of the planets and the galaxies, our world moves from micro to macrocosm with incredible ease and fluency.

While reflecting this outer imagery of scientific logic, my images also express something deep and personal. Others frequently share their views about what they see in my forms, and I welcome this. For me, the sculptures relate to one another. They are a family of living things, each and all a part of my visual perspective. I am told that my work expresses a feminine aesthetic. I am willing to explore the sensual and sexual aspects of what my subconscious reveals. In many ways, the work is a celebration of female sexuality. The titles of my sculptures and the use of negative space and curvilinear forms are all about women.

This brings me full circle to my obsessive drive to create something personal and unique through my art with the finite time that my life affords me. With every line, each silhouette, and form, I ask myself, “Is it pure? Is it me? Have I shown integrity in my process to reflect my own truth?" The results must be as strong and effective as humanly possible. For me, that is all that there is.