Artist Research: Elizabeth Turk

Elizabeth Turk is a sculpture artist that was born in California in 1961. She completed her M.F.A. at the Rinehart School of Sculpture in 1994 at the age of 33. She is known for her gravity-defying marble sculptures and describes her work as her meditation. She currently works in studios in both California and New York where she develops art that explores the juxtaposition of hard and soft, fluid in solid, lightness in weight. She is the founder of ET Projects - a non-profit that develops immersive art experiences. She had her first solo exhibit in 1998 at the Hemphill Gallery in Washington DC and has continued to show consistently with her most recent shows in 2020 at both the Hirschl & Madler Modern in NY, NY, and the Mt. San Antonion Gardens in Pomona CA.

More information about Elizabeth Turk and her art can be found at ElizabethTurk.com

The fact that this artist derives a great deal of her inspiration from nature and that her sculptures include really beautiful curves and lines. They feel very light and airy thanks to the significant amount of negative space that she includes in her pieces. It’s quite amazing how many different shapes and textures she is able to achieve within a single sculpture. The stability of her pieces along with the fragility that comes from the negative space is stunning.

Our work is similar in that I too draw my inspiration from nature and am often drawn to curved lines and a lot of negative space. The thing that I might do differently if her work was mine would be to use fewer corners and parallel structures and include more spiral and twisted shapes. Her ability to create movement and openness along with unique texture and pattern are things I would like to emulate about her work.

Project Update

As I continue through the art courses at TAMUCC, I’m discovering that I really enjoy the process of carving in association with my work. The peace and calm that come with these projects for me are similar to the feelings I had working on linoleum carving and wood carving in my printmaking course. I really enjoy being able to just sit and carve without having to think about the stress of the day and issues at work.

I started this project by developing a few different Maquettes out of clay. Given that the instruction was to develop a non-objective sculpture incorporating a number of shapes, angles, and textures, this was a fun process. I spent several hours with the clay - making shapes, attaching them in different ways, and developing ideas. below you can see some of the preliminary maquettes that I developed.

In the process of discussing each of these in class with my instructor, I pulled a spiral piece off of one of the moquettes in order to make use of another piece and Olivia pointed out that the lines, simplicity, and movement of that small structure were really interesting and could make for a unique piece. I recreated it in a slightly larger form and took several photos to use as a reference. We poured our plaster using a 1:1 ratio of water to plaster, allowed them to harden enough to remove them from the buckets and left them to dry until the next class.

The last two class periods have been spent carving. This process started with a quick sketch of the shape of the structure on the block. I used a large chisel and hammer to remove some of the mass between the spiral structures, leaving the center mass of the structure in place to maintain stability until I finish the majority of the carving. I used a sure form rasp to smooth edges and start developing the curves. As I continue to removed mass, the spiral shape of the object has slowly started to develop. There is quite a bit of work left to complete, but as I move forward I can even more clearly see the shape and form of my sculpture taking place. I am enjoying the process and am excited to see where it goes.