LaliGallery: About Lali

Lali's Blog:    MyGreenVermont.com

Solo:

• Annapolis City Hall, Annapolis, Maryland, 2003 (painting and sculpture)

• Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester, Vermont, 2006

• "Featured Artist Exhibition," Chaffee Center for the Visual Arts, Rutland, Vermont, 2006

Group:

• St. John’s College, Annapolis, Maryland, 2004

• "Collectors' Gallery," Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester, Vermont, 2005, 2006

• "Artists in the Garden," Hildene-Lincoln Family Home, Manchester, Vermont, 2005, 2006

• Chaffee Center for the Visual Arts, Rutland, Vermont, 2005

• The Latchis Hotel & Theatre, Brattleboro, VT, 2007

• "Art on the Green," Pawlet, VT, 2005

• Redux Art and Antiques, Dorset, Vermont, 2006

• Studio Place Arts Gallery, Barre, Vermont, 2007

I sculpt stone with hand tools because they allow me to hear the voice of the stone. I may have in mind something that I want to carve in a certain way, but the stone may have in mind something slightly different. It is important to listen to the stone.

This is also why I carve directly on the stone, without first making clay models or drawings (although I practice drawing as a discipline). I want to establish a dialogue with the stone, a respectful give-and-take, rather than drowning out its voice, or subduing the stone by force.

The time element in hand-carving is significant. It seems right, in this age of instant results, to engage in something that happens so slowly--sometimes, it seems, in geologic time. When I begin work on a sculpture there are days when, at the end of three or four hours of steady carving, I can barely tell that I have made a difference. That is a difficult time for me, requiring strong muscles, blind faith and much humility. But when the figure at last begins to emerge (the "Pygmalion moment") my relationship to it is deeper by virtue of the hours spent working toward that point.

Finally, I carve by hand because I like the rhythm of my arm swinging the mallet, and the sound of the chisel on the stone.

If the pace of stone carving can be described in musical terms as "adagio," the tempo of modeling clay is "allegretto." Clay allows me to bring an idea into form quickly, change it endlessly, take it apart and start over again. My clay figures have a playful, spontaneous feeling--the same feeling I had as a child when I made my first nativity scene out of mud from the backyard. I paint the figures in bright colors and give them a coat of shiny varnish, so that they seem to dance in the light.

For me, stone and clay balance each other--one slow, one fast; one heavy, one light; one serious, the other playful. The alternation between the two both reflects and mediates the equilibrium that I strive for in life.

To buy any available item, contact Lali at

802-645-9355, or e-mail lali@laligallery.com