I am linking this months Art of the Month blog to International Womens Day.
It is celebrated on the 8th March every year. In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation, and love towards women to a celebration for women's economic, political, and social achievements.
One of my favourite female artists is Louise Bourgeois - which brings me to my favourite pieces of her practice - her sculptures.
Bourgeois was a French-American artist who was best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker.
She explored a variety of themes over the course of her long career including domesticity and the family, sexuality and the body, as well as death and the subconscious.
I first saw her work when I started University in 2010 and saw her Maman sculpture and the Tate. The title is the familiar French word for Mother.
It is a bronze, stainless steel, and marble sculpture which depicts a spider, is among the world's largest, measuring over 30 ft high and over 33 ft wide. It includes a sac containing 26 marble eggs and its abdomen and thorax are made of ribbed bronze.
I have always been interested in Sculpture and Bourgeois work showed me that there are endless possibilities of materials and ideas to be made. I had never considered such a large scale for sculptural work - through her sculptures, I ended up exploring countless sculptors, whose work spans all shapes, sizes and materials. (Barbara Hepworth, while we are on the subject of celebrating Female Artists, was one of many I was inspired by)
I am drawn to sculpture because of its flexibility - sculpture is defined by being a three dimensional art work - since Modernism, there has been an almost complete freedom of materials and process to make sculptures.
I have made some in wood, modrock, velvet, pigment and wire so far. My next plans are to use wax (although I have been saying this for some time now).
Who are your favourite sculptors and why?