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ERIC BOYER —I like to use the word "evolution" to describe my artistic process because of its origins: fabricating fireplace screens and absentmindedly playing with the scraps of metal, molds like clay but is actually a form of cloth, with a finite amount of give and take. My knowledge and interest in the human figure and anatomy naturally led me into an exploration on a small scale with this very friendly but unusual material, eventually challenging me to create larger sculptures.

I create to share the beauty of the figure and the emotional vocabulary it speaks. Even without the face, the "window to the soul", the body speaks volumes. Like music without words which is nonetheless perfectly understood on an emotional level, these "neoclassical" truncated figures convey their story without the facial expression we are most accustomed to reading. When I create faces I most often do so as separate entities, disembodied.

Perhaps I am a victim of western thought and its "classical" mind/body duality. If so, the creative process itself is originating from the mind which dwells in the body rather than the brain, leaving those cerebral functions for attendant duties like measurement, mechanics and the business side of things.

Lastly, my art most commonly comes from an inner vision. I do not work from models, although I have done extensive life drawing and portraits. Rather, I create from an ever changing visual and tactile memory bank that leaves me room for exaggeration and expression as the piece requires. There is an evolution within the piece itself, often changing direction dramatically away from any contrived structure I may try to impose.

My hope is that the viewer of my work will be struck by the beauty of the physical body and moved by its expressive power, while appreciating the innovative and unique visual characteristics of my chosen material, wire mesh.