Cathy Carman
Trans-Formation
The imagination is a lens. A door. Through which come visitors from an inner self, a real presence just beyond our fingertips. From the realm of all as yet unlived possibilities of being human.
Greeting these visitors, or strangers, is a delicate and magical moment of creativity when the ordinary self is transformed in the process of an encounter.
Such transformation is what an artist continually tries to achieve in her life.
And not merely transformations of identity, of political perception, or of cultural possibility; but transformations of the heart, through the lens of imagination.
Such is the life journey of an artist. The works are the tracks of the animal, on that journey.
Dr. Myles Campbell
(from)
Art and Architecture of Ireland 1600-2000
(Yale University Press – for RHA.)
“The vigorously worked surfaces that characterize many of her sculptures betray a forceful creative energy that seems almost impulsive. It is this tendency towards a reflexive and at times frenetic and implacable treatment of the medium which legitimizes the categorization of Carman’s work as expressionist.”
“Through her clever manipulation of the expressive potential of a wide range of materials, Carman displays a refreshing capacity for communicating the depth of her inner feels which is matched by few Irish artists of her generation.”