Norm Lalonde

When I make an abstract, people ask what it is. It is nothing. It is just a beautiful shape. They insist that is something, an elephant, a dog, something because they need it to be something. I also find my brain often trying to rationalize an image where none was intended. 

These 4 pieces were a new challenge to me. To get out of my brain and just make shapes from a plain sheet of clay. To twist, mold, cut and find some type of beauty that started from flat nothingness. I started with a shape outline cut into the flat sheet. One piece was a violin, another was a mandolin just because that is what was sitting next to me at the time. I set out to destroy those shapes and end up with a different look while retaining some of the original elements. The next two pieces were just free flowing and letting the wet clay slab bend to gravity and break where it gave out. Supporting it, twisting it and working it until time and dryness would not allow the clay to give any more. It was like the clay said, “Enough, you are done.” 

There is no symbolism here, no irony, no comedy, no shock factor, no oppression, no hidden story, no extra meaning, that you can draw out of these. It is just a flat piece of clay that was given a chance to dance in the light and take a new shape until it didn’t want to bend anymore. They gave me more than I gave them.