When Sculpting Cedar, This Artist Is Tireless And Unsentimental

When Sculpting Cedar, This Artist Is Tireless And Unsentimental:

Ocean Voices, 2012. Cedar, graphite. 53" x 185" x 67".

“Ursula von Rydingsvard is 70 years old, but she still spends eight hours a day working massive blocks of cedar into sculptures. ‘I don’t want the cuteness associated with the wood,’ she says, ‘or even the nostalgia.’

Von Rydingsvard seems to have little reverence for the medium, but nostalgia is another matter. She was born 70 years ago in Germany, and recounts in vivid detail the stories of her Polish mother and Ukranian father. He had been been conscripted to work on a German farm during World War II, and after a couple of years he sent for his wife.”

Read more… (includes NPR audio)

(Via NPR Topics: Visual Arts.)