Darcy Meeker

All my work is about flowing line, texture, opaque vs. translucent, figure-ground play and surface.

Whatever medium I'm working with usually asks you to touch it. It's all about curves and texture, light and shadow. If it doesn't convey that kind of sensuous pull, I'm not interested in it.

In stone, shape and texture dominate and they are more sculptural. I carve stone in forever-time, in Now, reaching for connection with spirit, with balance and centeredness, with inner vitality. I am told that I have muscular dystrophy, and some days I can't work zippers or open jars. But I can carve rocks. I must carve them. I must share them.

In aluminum and copper, shape and texture may also dominate, but in many, it is the content that dominates and these are more painterly. I?m always pushing the paint in ways that highlight and enhance the shimmering texture of the metal and heat patina of the copper. My metal work is my fast-feedback art form. Running the stylus over its silky surface, changing the pools of light to sinuous rivers ? what a pleasure! Plus, once a line goes in, it?s in, so I use a little designing/planning, then it?s party time; I just make it up as I go along, and the creative universe gives me a new texture, virtually every time.

Darcy Meeker tools copper (from earrings to 38-foot wall work), creates sculpture in stone, clay, silk, aluminum, and, well, pretty much anything she can get her hands on, and paints, collages and prints on a variety of materials with the same wide-ranging enthusiasm. She also works in light, currently developing a walk-through light/sculpture experience.

Her commissions include a Baltimore commission, a Baptismal Font for St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, and a large public sculpture for General Electric in Schenectady, NY, one for the Luther Memorial Lutheran Church in Blacksburg, Va., and other sculptures for private homes coast to coast.

It all started when she made her first face in clay at age 44 and discovered sculpting magic in her hands. Some 57 faces later, she carved her first stone at a two-day workshop and traded it with the teacher for a set of tools and a new rock. Soon, she resigned from the agricultural extension communications faculty at the University of Florida and moved to Blacksburg to carve out a new life for herself as an artist.

That was 22 Years ago. She had a stroke and has muscular dystrophy ?still she rocks on doing art.