Artist’s Statement

“Imagine for a minute that your only senses are sight and touch. Vocabulary is not an option. There is no written or verbal explanation for many of my sculptures other than to say what the material is. You are not told what to expect or if there are any hidden meanings.”

“You have to draw your own conclusions and relate to the form through your own experiences and concepts. Allow yourself to reflect on the structure and gain a personal narrative to fit it.”

“Saying all that I obviously have my personal reasons to create the sculptures that I do. Whether for pure aesthetic reasons or from a deep rooted emotional need to express myself.”

“With all my pieces, it is not just the end product that is important to me. It is also the process of finding the correct medium, assessing it from 360 degrees and seeing what that piece in itself has to offer. This is a process which continues from the first gouge marks to the last rub of oil or wax. I want to create something from within me, but also need to collaborate with the material, accepting it’s generic identity, and then crucially cherishing the uniqueness of each invividual piece.”

“Directly after finishing my BA Hon degree in illustration I knew the only way I could express myself was going to be through sculpture. I had a compelling focus on creating beauty but also then destroying that thing of beauty. This went on for sometime before it became more complex and became more about maintaining the beauty but also mutilating that beauty. The beauty is maintained but by using nails, barbed wire and metal rods I can deface the sculpture. Nothing remains perfect.”

“Everything you experience in life is going to influence you in some way, be it in a small way or monumentally. Also your genetic makeup determines your abilities: But I have been influenced by Brancusi, Hepworth, Noguchi and Kim Lim, all of whom liked to work directly with the material.”

“For me, the process of carving is one of discovery. Both my initial idea and the physical form of the material evolve together in relation to the experience of what is seen and felt in the sensuous world.”

Sonia North