Beth Cavener Stichter’s Life-Size Animal Sculptures Express More Emotions Than A Greek Tragedy

Sculptor Beth Cavener Stichter carves dramatic, expressive human-size animals from clay which exhibit the extremes of human characteristics and emotions. She has goats, wolves, lambs, snakes and rabbits display acts of greed, betrayal and jealousy. Using the malleable nature of clay, Stichter produces wonderfully sensitive pieces loaded with drama and theatricality.

In her latest series Four Humors, she takes a theory developed by the Ancient Greeks which describes what a psychologically healthy human body should look like. The Four Humors were black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood. If a body had too much of any of these substances, then that would correspond to a personality deficiency. Stichter says she was intrigued that people could be evaluated solely by the amount of liquid they contained in their bodies. Stichter explores multiple base theories and ideas in her work. She goes on to say:

There are primitive animal instincts in our own depths, waiting for the chance to slide past a conscious moment. The sculptures I create focus on human psychology, stripped of context and rationalization, and articulated through animal and human forms. On the surface, these figures are simply feral and domestic individuals suspended in a moment of tension. Beneath the surface they embody the impacts of aggression, territorial desires, isolation, and pack mentality. (Source)

See if you can recognize yourself in more of her sculptures after the jump. (Via Art Fucks Me)

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