Cathy Carman – Sculptor’s Diary

 

                     Sculptor touches wood, stone, bronze. His hands can sense the temperature of emotion.
An idea appears under the loving fingers. A thought finds the fountain and the reality takes its shape.

This is a diary of personal emotions. Things that perhaps cannot be expressed in words. They only exist in forms, in figures that stand inside me. Something that can keep me afloat. A diary can be like a life raft - Cathy Carman - My Diary

Cathy Carman – accomplished sculptor from Ireland, exhibited her work in Poland for the first time. Her two exhibitions which take place in Poland, has been called – This is my personal diary.

She studied sculpture at the Academy of Arts in Dublin. Cathy Carman sculpts in bronze, stone, wood and other materials. They are used to give surprising effects, inspiring imagination of viewers.
Her works are exhibited in Ireland as well as the other countries. Monuments and statues made by her, adorn Irish city streets and public institutions. Her exhibitions – cycles: Vessels, Oweynagat, Moon - are formulated according to the rhythm of imagination and metaphors.

Cathy Carman’s exhibitions in Poland highlight duality in her works.
Intriguing, dynamic and expressive sculptures, which we can see on this display have a great deal of energy. Each of them is individual thought, separate page in her diary.
The perfect duet is passing and human fate.







I am full of hope and melancholy. Two opposites. Two powerful emotions. And what I discovered was that in each case there was a twin. With hope there was always despair, with love there was always hate – Cathy writes in her diary



Melancholy – sister of death and silence. The strongest feelings cause extreme emotions.

Writer will trap his words between pages. Sculptor touches wood, metal. Under his omniscient fingers he reads evanescence. Now he needs just time and patience. Material will change into the character or symbol. Then the story will start. Sculptor will open next card in her diary.
Do the opposite have to be hostile, and the passing have to be a death?
Hope pulls out its hands, and melancholy spreads over silver, trembling leaves.


The keynote of the exhibition is a loss and hope. Sculptor was stricken by the death of her brother, but she could experience the fortunate recovery of her partner. Illness of a loved one is harder to bear than our own. We are helpless when our close friends suffer.

Melancholy and joy, sorrow and hope come unexpectedly at us, caused by events in our lives, and they wash over us like an ocean.

Love brings suffering, bestows us and takes all away. It works like a relentless tide. The sea must calm down after the storm. The wind stops, the waves forget about the anger.
The fragility of the human heart, the unpredictability of fate and ubiquitous fortune, remind us that we need to live on our own account – we have to “think”, not just “know”.

I thought that I would like to do something that protects us from the naked waves.

Some people have already left with the wave. What can protect us? Consolation may be found in “a road”, to be on the road and to create.

Figures from the diary carry loads on their backs. They are like blades inbuilt in human body, struggling in pain under their weight. You can feel their endurance, though they will bear only one life.

When the sculpture is formed, material gives in to the hands of the sculptor. He is the only one who knows what thoughts the sculpture hides. He shapes the material according to his ideas, but the matter gives him its own soul.

Wood is warm, bronze is cold.
Disappointment, longing, the style of the era filtered by the imagination of the artist.

The artist explores and creates from his own experience, if he is honest - the truth will appear. Slavish frames of commitments can be beaten only by the imagination.



This rush of the emotions is like the sea. I am flooded, I experience feelings like waves - from Cathy Carman Diary

Sculptures are orphans without their creator. Only the sculptor knows how to combine them, how to make them play with our imagination, to make our hearts understand the answer.
This is our contact zone - the viewer and the creator.

Perfect point of intersection of your fate, longing and expectations.

The surface of the calm seas is deceiving us. The death is waiting for the man when the storm arrives. But the man will not die, even the ocean will not take him, because human life is elusive to the ocean.

Between the wave and the shore there is no explanation, between waves there is no sympathy.
Ocean takes, calms down, his silence soothes.

The wind does not let to sleep. The waves affect the heart, fill the sculptor’s head with the noise and world. It is not enough to remember, it flows in our veins.
Everything truly happens.
Love, breakup, you only need a heart for this game.

I try to maintain a dreamlike unconscious state as I make the work. I’m not a man! It’s myself I’m living with - from Cathy Carman Diary

Every artist is looking for his own truth, the way and the vision of the world.
If he has a bit of luck, he will come out from this puzzle, clean like a butterfly.

Sculptures coexist in space. Where is the beginning, the touch, the idea, the sketch? Then you can reconstruct everything from human gestures and hearts, you can look at the shadows, the true spirits of this world.
Body - excellent sculpture.

Each sculpture is a new me, a new life. It can be done. Planets can be rearranged. To be a creator and suddenly to realize that there is no one here, that you have to face loneliness.

When the sculpture is ready, Time no longer exists.
It is waiting for the next Wheel.

Three Cathy Carman's exhibitions in Warsaw:


1. Centre for the Promotion of Culture Prague South 
    5-26 March 2015

2. Gallery of Contemporary Art at the Ad-Hoc Arsus Cultural Center
    4 - 27 April, 2015

3. Public Library, Warsaw, ul. Czerniakowska 178a 

    Biblioteka Publiczna dla dzielnicy Śródmieście
    April 28th – 12th May 2015





Cathy Carman - Sculptor