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'WHAT FORCE BURNING
THROUGH MY HANDS'

An Interview with
Contemporary American Sculptor Lorrie Goulet
by Christopher M. Wright

© 2001 Christopher M. Wright
All Rights Reserved

Lorrie Goulet has been a prominent figure in American sculpture for many years. In 1998, the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) presented 30 of her sculptures and 19 of her works on paper in a major one-woman retrospective exhibit. Her work has been collected by or displayed in several other museums - the Whitney and Metropolitan museums in New York, the Hirshorn in Washington, D.C., and the National Academy of Design, among others. She has had a number of commissions, including one for the New York Public Library. She has been teaching at the Art Students League of New York since 1981.

She wrote the words above ("what force burning...") in her poem 'Anima in Stone' in 1980. I interviewed her in 2001.

Chris Wright: The first thing I noticed about your work was the eyes. They're not round; they're oval-shaped, like Elizabeth Taylor 'Cleopatra' eyes. Is there a story behind that?

Lorrie Goulet: There's never a story behind any of my work. I work by form, not subject matter. I don't know why the eyes came out that way. I'm a Latin - part French and part Italian. When I went to the south of Italy, it felt like home. So the eyes are somewhat Mediterranean.

CW: Your sculptures do look Romanesque. And they all have names like 'Cicero' and 'Venus'. Are you consciously reaching back to antiquity for inspiration?

LG: No, but I do carry the memories and genes of all of my people who came before me. I go into a very deep state of concentration when I'm working and I don't know where things come from. I draw on my inner resources.

CW: You have said that you are not in any movement, not part of any trend. Do you feel you belong to another time?

LG: No, I'm very much a part of this time. I work by form which is universal and timeless. I use forms that please me and express what I have to say. I think of sculpture as a language that cannot be translated into words. It is a silent communication that doesn't need the intellect to be understood, but goes directly to the core of what it feels like to be human.

CW: You've had a long and distinguished career. You've produced over 500 works. How have you managed to keep the creative juices flowing all that time?

LG: My first teacher said, 'Creativity is a fountain. If you know how to turn the handle on, you'll never run out of ideas.' I believe everybody has creativity and it doesn't dry up. It's always there. But it gets blocked by the rational mind and so much in modern life.

CW: What advice can you give to artists who are feeling blocked?

LG: The first thing you have to do is believe you can do it. Then you have to do SOMETHING - start a piece, take a course, whatever. And don't censor yourself. The impulses you get might not seem rational but they can be used for something. You know, children make beautiful works of art. You have to get back to your childhood innocence. If you want to tap the creative well-spring, it has to be a joy to you. You have to be able to say, 'I love to do this.'

CW: Believing you can do it.... You have said that you had doubts about you're worth as an artist until the late '60's, when you came to have blind unquestioning faith in your ability. How did you sweep away the doubts and get that kind of self-confidence?

LG: I got my calling to sculpture at age 12. This was right after the Depression and not so long after women got the right to vote. I didn't know where I would get the money for my training and I can't tell you how many people tried to turn me off, except for my mother who encouraged me. Everybody else told me, 'Girls don't carve stone.' So I was not at all sure of myself in the beginning. I overcame those feelings of limitation only little by little. Of course, women these days don't have to go through all this because they can be anything they want.

CW: You've seen a lot of changes in your 65-year career. Is there anything getting lost that you feel is worth preserving?

LG: Training, discipline, practice. You have to be very serious. Feel and think deeply about what you're doing. A lot of what's in art galleries now is not harmonious. A lot of it expresses the most negative aspects of modern life. You'll never convince me that ugly is beautiful. I go for something more solid and spiritually tangible. I like to feel that my work expresses a unity of mind, body and spirit. I consider my studio a temple. I hone in on my spirit when I work, it's a religious experience for me. I want my work to elevate people and make them happy. And I like to think I've succeeded. It was so gratifying to have people sign the guestbook at the NMWA exhibit and thank me for what I do.

CW: Have there been any positive developments in art and sculpture in your lifetime?

LG: Picasso and others working in Paris in the early part of the century really opened up a lot of possibilities for taking art in new directions. Now artists are free to do anything they can discover or invent. There are new mediums like mobiles and collages that are beautiful. There are a lot of new materials that are interesting. Computer art has a lot of possibilities, too. We live in an age when all the doors have been opened.

CW: Has the goal of your art changed in 65 years?

LG: Not really. I try to imbue the material with life to reflect my feelings and my spirit to express something deeply profound in the religious sense about being human and relating to the great energy that is the universal reality. I think of it as a search for harmony and unity in the expressed image that all the shapes relate to each other and the finished piece has the feeling of wholeness and beauty.

CW: What is the importance of painting and drawing to your sculpture?

LG: Drawing is crucial to sculpture. Sculpture forms a 360-degree silhouette, a line in the mind's-eye. The line has to be good. Drawing trains the eye to prepare for this. I've been painting and drawing always, and painting seriously for the last 12 years. I'm painting now because the carving was bothering my wrists. I'll go back to carving next year. Between you and me, it's so much fun, it's very addictive. It's just your rhythm and the stone - it transports you to another place, away from all the troubles of the world.

RESOURCES

National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA)

Archives of American Art (Smithsonian)

© 2001 Christopher M. Wright
All Rights Reserved - This material may not be republished, rebroadcast, rewritten, redistributed, resold, or manipulated in any form.

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