The first concentrate of my work was learning to be quiet, to be spontaneous - to master forms using clay and the potters wheel . The effort of working abstractly with high fired glazes in muted color forms. The outline shapes, the perfet line and the interesting space inside and ouy, have come full circle,  not with the potters wheel but still. working abstractly But this time. with bright color and instead of forms about containment they are about an inner eruption of combination of forms both in clay and metals, with new energy  that is a bursting with color in uncontained space.

For many years themes of figurative sculpture using slabs of clay folding and unfolding  from a central core of columns that were progressively made in wax for large bronzes. Many works combined with realistic combinations of classical  and realistic face images  Starting with small scale works the stoneware personages expanded to be 12 feet high and were arranged in groups as environments.

As this imagery developed the focus turned to the inclusions of more fragmented partial masks in combinations, freed from their containment.
Ten years of work resulted in 5 one person exhibits at the Pindar Galley in Soho NY creating clay environments. Finally a gateways, a metaphor and symbol of entering a fantasy or different place. This Gallery experience was a wonderful.

The challenge today has become progressively more forthright abstract and articulate. The figures of today could be strange flowers or birds or people from some other unheard of planet. The forces of memory and imagination brings me to the place at the beginning of my career - full of energy and enthusiasm for an ease of spontaneous works -combining colorful playful forms with uncontained movement.

Phyllis Baker Hammond