Monica Mechling

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Altered Ego I, 2010	Altered Ego IV, 2010	Altered VII, 2010
Altered Ego VIII, 2010	Altered Ego X, 2010	Altered Ego XI, 2010
Posed and Poised I, 2010	Posed and Poised II, 2010	Wasted and Wounded IV, 2010

Artist Statement

Monica Mechling

Artist Statement

I am often asked to explain why the eyes on so many of my figures are shrouded or masked. I could say it was because the figures refuse to see the truth of the world in front of them, or that they refuse to acknowledge the struggle of living a “life of quiet desperation” (Thoreau).  Maybe that is why their eyes are hidden.  Or, maybe it is that they are holding on so tightly to their identities that they refuse to let the world intrude upon their souls.

My sculptures are often incomplete figures, as if their body parts had been brutally ripped from them.  Is someone else controlling their worlds, or could it be that they are content in their imperfection? Their bodies may just be a shell that holds the intensely private parts of their lives.

And then there are the wrappings that bind their bodies with scant attempts to hide or tie them.  Why does this imply?

When I go into the studio I do not go there with a great vision, ready to pour this musing into my work. I go into the studio with so many thoughts, both conscious and subconscious, thoughts filled with angst, frustration and confusion;  hopeful and willing thoughts, sexual and sensual visions, thoughts that I am not even sure I realize, but that are so much a part of who I am.  When I face the clay it is a combination of all of these thoughts that work their way through my hands and into the human form in front of me.

When I’m finished, and present these images to the viewer, do I do so that they may try to read my mind?

I would prefer that viewers read their own minds as they interpret what is now in front of them.

Artist Bio

Monica Mechling

EXHIBITION RESUME

Carrie Haddad Gallery – Summer Group Show  Hudson, NY July 2010

 The Figurative – Verdigris Gallery – Hudson, NY – September 2007

 One Woman Show – Chalk Farm Gallery – Santa Fe, NM – June 2006

 Encounters with Sculpture – Columbia County Council on the Arts – Hudson, NY – October 20005

 Haddad Lascano Gallery – Great Barrington, MA – September 2005

 Timeless Beauty – DLD Gallery – Bellmore, NY – November 2002

 Temptations of Eve – CFM Gallery – New York, NY – May 2001

 Temptations of Eve – CFM Gallery – New York, NY – December 2000

 Santa Fe Doll Art – Albuquerque, NM -  April 2000

 Santa Fe Doll Art – Albuquerque, NM - April 1999

 Doll Exhibition – National Museum of Moscow – Moscow, Russia – December 1998

 Kunstler Puppen – Goes, Netherlands – May 1998

 Doll Art – Frankfurt, Germany – May 1998

 Edith Lambert Gallery – Santa Fe, NM – April 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995

 Dolls as Art – CFM Gallery – New York, NY – December 1997

 Master Pieces of the World – New York, NY – February 1997, 1996, 1965, 1964

 Peep Show – CFM Gallery – New York, NY – January 1997

 Transformations – CFM Gallery - New York, NY - December 1996

 International Doll Art – Deborah Hellman Gallery, Chicago, IL –1996,  1966,  1995, 1994

 Dolls as Art – CFM Gallery – New York, NY - December 1995

  Angels in our Mist – Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art – Seattle, WA – November 1994

 Doll Art – Frankfurt, Germany – May 1994