My partner, Carl Merten, with my marble carving, Last Sound.

moment of clarity

I first realised I wanted to be a sculptor in a moment of clarity one night when I was at dinner with friends in 1975. In one of those rare clear moments when the wine and food had relaxed my thoughts, the realisation popped unexpectedly into my mind.

I had been completing a plaster sculpture for assessment at the end of my second year at the University of Regina in Canada. During the few days of solid work on this piece, I experienced a constant delightful feeling of containment and self-fulfillment. While physically working on the piece, I had the odd sense that I was working on myself. As I shaped and finished the plaster, I was shaping and finishing myself. (In retrospect, the work was hideous). At dinner one night, after a few glasses of wine, I realised that I wanted to keep this feeling forever and at that moment decided to become a sculptor. Since then, I have been chasing that same feeling through my work. Sometimes it is there, and it is always as powerful and as memorable.

meaning of the work

Inner feeling has always preoccupied my sculpture. I suppose because I'm an introvert, it cannot be otherwise. That also explains why I'm so shy about showing my work, and if it weren't for Carl, no one else but my friends and family would see it.

After I got past the hideous phase, my early work concerned the exploration of the evolution of form from a seed or egg. I must give a great deal of credit to Rudolph Steiner and his ideas on the development of form and its relationship to sculpture. I attended a three-week art workshop at the Steiner community outside New York City in 1981, which changed my work considerably.

Steiner, Carl Jung, the I Ching underpin the meaning of my work. Each is concerned with the natural cycles of growth and change, whether in the change of the seasons, the changes throughout our lives, or our own inner development. Steiner, Jung, and the Chinese developed their own systems to understand this cycle.

goddesses

I never consciously decided to create goddesses, although I was influenced by my friend, Jean Hillabold, who wrote a story about a female sculptor who created goddesses. In fact, the word faintly embarrasses me as I don't wish to be associated with some undisciplined new age belief. But the images keep coming into my mind at unexpected moments, even when I'm asleep. They always have female faces, but their bodies are often abstracted animal forms, such as the serpent, bird, or fish. I also discovered that I'm not the first to create therianthropic images (human/animal hybrids) and this discovery has led me to the study of religions (University of New England), specifically ancient and prehistoric religions, both east and west. I received a BA Honours degree and a doctorate in Studies in Religion for my theses on prehistoric Mesopotamian and Egyptian figurines.

Unlike many of these ancient female images, however, mine have little to do with physical fecundity, fertility, love, and motherhood -- qualities traditionally associated with women. Rather, they have to do with the non-rational qualities of the human psyche -- intuition, insight, inner silence, and spiritual growth and maturation. These are qualities which the development of western society has undervalued in its pursuit of the rational, mechanical, technological, and scientific.

Steiner's approach to the evolution of form aligned with my interest in psychologist Carl Jung and his process of individuation. Combined with the progression of the trigrams in the Chinese classic, the I Ching, these ideas inspired a new series of abstract pieces based on human inner experiences of birth, growth, maturation, demise, and silence.

My current work consists of female imagery and the spirit of Zen, as expressed in Zen gardens and brush painting.

Works expressing my three-dimensional approach to the world of spirit, mythology, and imagination, as well as a selection of related paintings, can be viewed here, on my website.

3/08/09 jr

I also discovered that I'm not the first to create therianthropic images (human/animal hybrids) and this discovery has led me to the study of religions (University of New England), specifically ancient and prehistoric religions, both east and west. I received a BA Honours degree and a doctorate in Studies in Religion for my theses on prehistoric Egyptian and Mesopotamian figurines.

Unlike many of these ancient female images, however, mine have little to do with physical fecundity, fertility, love, and motherhood -- qualities traditionally associated with women. Rather, they have to do with the non-rational qualities of the human psyche -- intuition, insight, inner silence, and non-physical growth and maturation. These are qualities which the development of western society has undervalued in its pursuit of the rational, mechanical, technological, and scientific.

While sculpture and academic research are my main occupations, early in the 1990's I designed a logo for the Department of Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.

My sister, Professor Diana Relke, founded and developed the department despite an environment of continually decreasing funding and reduced governmental interest in the humanities. Despite such hostilities and obstructions, she created a diverse and interdisciplinary department which is the envy of every university wishing to develop a women's and gender studies program.