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SCULPTURE – ABOUT

I attended UMass Dartmouth for undergrad and received a BFA in Sculpture,

and then attended Cranbrook for graduate school and received a MFA in

Ceramics.  I was lucky enough to be exposed to wonderful mentors and

artists that broadened my artistic concepts and philosophies at both schools.

 

During graduate school, I began to look at the human body as a “bank of forms”

from which to compose sculptures.  I was creating large ceramic capsules for souls,

and by the end of my graduate career at I was streamlining the human body forms

into simplified hollow 1,000 lb. forms.   I paid attention to what other artists like

Henry Moore, Tony Cragg, Louise Bourgeois, Kiki Smith, and Isamu Noguchi were

making and what mediums they used for creating their artworks.  As these

masters influenced my concepts of creation from start to finish, the significance

of material usage became evermore important in my works.

 

In 2008, as propane and natural gas prices continued to rise I was finally priced

out of my familiar ceramic medium, and I eventually dismantled my 130 c.f. car

kiln.  It took me two years of drawing and research to discover the full potential of

polymer technology as I began to make and cast from molds.  I have continued to

work figuratively, but my focus has become on a more molecular level; yet, still

large-scale.  For the past eight years I have been creating biomorphic shapes that

predominantly refer to the microscopic world of genetics.  My shapes are basically

invented forms of genes and chromosomes that are abstract and figurative in a

playful, but essential manor.  

Ralph Paquin contemporary abstract artist sculpture drawing painting works on paper ceramics ceramic organomorphic sculptor modern art studio artwork artworks figurative
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