Julie Joy Saypoff - Artist Statement

My goal as a sculptor is to communicate a specific energy through the gesture of a piece.  The open wire sculptures portray an internal honesty, stripped of all pretense.  Placement and the interplay between positive and negative space are essential to the interpretation of these works.  The solid metal sculptures are full of symbolism and each tells a different story for the viewer to interpret.  All of my work speaks of emotion, honesty and relationships between human beings and their environment.

Copper, steel and aluminum are all metals that came from the earth and were fabricated for human use.  I work to engender these materials with a new organic life, enabling them to interact with each other and with the viewer.  I feel that by returning them to live upon the earth in a newly created form, they bring with them a spiritual and meaningful voice of their own.

I work spontaneously and intuitively, always trying to capture my initial concept.  Once I have a rough version of the piece, I revise and refine it until it embodies the feeling that I would like to portray.  I believe that fine art is a universal language that can be appreciated by anyone who is patient enough to ponder it and that by understanding basic human nature, we can better understand both ourselves and others.  It is a language without words that can be seen as well as felt and can be visually interpreted throughout the world.