ALICE STURGESS STEINMAN Originally trained in New York, Alice Sturges Steinman has been making clay since she arrived in California in the heyday of the clay revolution. Her work has always had to do with psychological realism. At times the clay figures speak for themselves about their mood, or the character they represent, at others, there is reference to a specific story, or narrative content. Steinman uses all the different states that clay can have as a basic vocabulary of expression; thus the clay will be slumped, cracked, broken, ridged with marks, smoothed, or whatever suits the particular piece. In Steinman's work, scale is achieved by slicing the clay into large units and stacking them on an upright vertical pole; the slice marks then become another element of vocabulary about the clay. Steinman's paintings are often impromptu creations to work out some ideas for sculpture. Thus they have an immediate, rough quality. Horses often figure in Steinman's subject matter, as well as mergers between humans and beasts, and the canvas is often the best medium for expressing the movement and dynamism of those creatures.
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