Artist Statement

Stephen Newton

I am creating 3-Dimensional sculptures that are representative of my personal experiences in

the military and chronic pain. The materials I use are ceramics, wood, and metal. There is
something soothing about being an active participant of the process yet allowing the piece to
develop on its own. I have always been drawn to Alberto Giacomett’s abstract figures. His work
is very textural which expresses a form of discomfort. More recently I have been inspired by
Stephen de Staebler. I am fighting and managing pain everyday, and through these pieces I am
expressing the abrasiveness of my physical pain in a figurative way. Nature also inspires me. It
is alive and active in the work, tactile and organic. My connection with nature, and my
emotional and physically painful experiences, inspires me to invoke the same sense of physical
response through my textural art. Currently I am creating abstract figures that have a very rough
unfinished texture. These figures are meant to represent how I feel in dealing with chronic pain
and the emotions attached to it.