Figurative Clay Sculptures

LOUISE PENTZ

Clay, like us, is fragile, vulnerable and temporary.

Also like us - it is strong, functional and can have a very long legacy.

My clay figures express my awe of women who, with great courage and dignity, face the injustices of the lack of education, the lack of freedom to make personal life choices and the lack of economic resources. Some of these women have experienced physical, emotional and sexual violence. Their wisdom and strength of spirit carries them, and those who depend on them, through life.

This struggle and endurance is captured in the surface scars and smoke fire marks on each sculpture, suggesting that women have fought these inequalities for millennia.

To quote Hillary Clinton ... "The role and rights of women and girls is the unfinished business of the 21st century."

All injustices can be righted.

This work is my voice of protest against these injustices and my celebration of the indomitable lives lived by these remarkable women.

No More (detail)

Knower
Height: 53 cm (21 in)

No More
Height 109 cm (43 in)

No More (detail)

Lament
Height: 84 cm (33 in)

Literatus
Height: 139 cm (54 in)

Literatus (detail)

Invocation
Height: 76 cm (30 in)

Dancer
Height: 126 cm (50 in) x 38 cm x 18 cm

Singer
Height: 133 cm (52 in)

Singer (detail)

Burden of Injustice
Height: 87 cm (34 in)

In Louise's studio

Burden of Injustice
(detail)

Collateral Damage
Approx. H 60 x 130 x 96 cm

Collateral Damage (detail)
Height: 80 cm (34 in)

Bird Without Wings
H 27 x 18 x 13.5 cm

Freedom Begins
H 51 x 30 x 7 cm

Cayenne (detail)
Height: 40 cm (16 in)

Louise firing a clay figure