| Marsha Balian |
For a number of years, my work focused on the issue of personal history and I did figurative paintings with an obsession for narrative. My focus was on the stories that give our lives meaning or define our identities. My own story changed radically when my husband became ill with terminal cancer. My painting studio was too distant from him and I inexplicably felt the need to move from two-dimensional to three-dimensional work. There was something very reassuring about the challenges of form and substance, not to mention the complexities of keeping a figure or bust from toppling.
I never know who will emerge when I start a new piece. Over the course of my husband's illness, I did twelve sculptures. During their gestation, and because they each had their own personality, they were good company. Because laughter is what keeps many of us sane in difficult circumstances, each piece expresses some interior source of humor.
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