COSTA RICAN WOMEN SCULPTORS

Summer2006

Sculptural Pursuit

Summer2006

Sculptural Pursuit

SILVIA DURAN

Harmony in Stone and Wood

SILVIA DURAN, A QUIET GRACIOUS WOMAN greets you with a friendly smile. During our interview, her fellow sculptors and daughter Andrea acted as interpreters, helping Duran share her life as an artist. Though she appeared to be on the quiet side socially, they described her as being aggressive and strong when she carves wood and stone in the studio. She has a close relationship with her two daughters, and while raising them, taught herself art. In 1999 she returned  to school to begin her formal studies in art school. After graduating in 2002  with a painting degree, Duran began studies in sculpture at the studio of Aquiles Jiménez and Donald Jiménez. In 2003, she attended the Continental University of Science and Art and, at the end of 2005 she received her Bachelors Degree of Art with a specialty in sculpture.

Duran has participated in a number of stone and wood symposiums in her country, carving life-size abstract or representational figurative sculptures. She told us that she primarily uses a direct approach to her work, allowing her designs to express her emotions and passions. Her vision is to express what comes from within, to have the ability to project her inner spirit into her works. There is often a juxtaposition of convex and concave forms in her sculptures, balanced with open spaces and sometimes highlighted with textured surfaces. Some of her jobs are delicately balanced.  Open dancing figures, and others are intimate embracing couples.

We continued the interview with Duran sharing influences in her life and her path as a sculptor.

SP: What were your early encounters with art, and who was an influence in your childhood?

SD: During my childhood we lived close to my grandfather. He was a musician and he used to draw. He gave form and usefulness to the objects he found.   He loved to make toys. He was passionate about the arts and taught me many of his values and shared his knowledge.

SP: Would you tell us about how you approach to a project, your tools, and materials?

SD: I use manual and electric tools, and approach my work allowing the material, both stone and wood to guide me. Or, I may have a definite design in mind, the job, the form, and the material. I like to find a balance point in my work.

SP: How do you feel your sculpture speaks to the viewer?

SD: I consider it very important to be able to communicate to potential viewers about the material and the process that I use to develop my work, so at the end of the process they will be able to interpret my ideas.

 I want my work to help the viewer feel and have a different perspective of the world. With a serious work, that applies to the technique, showing the abstraction of feeling, where it catches a movement and lets the vision flow. I want the senses of the viewer to be touched, and the job to express a little of myself to each of them. My sculpture expresses a feeling that comes from the same core or the heart of the stone and the wood.

SP: What is the most important characteristic of your art?

SD: The strength that is reflected in the convex forms, the concave spaces that unite as well separate, give a sculpture harmony and balance, emphasizing the soul of the piece. The aggressiveness, tenderness and sensuality reflected in the job, are the characteristics where one finds the soul of the sculpture.

SP: What challenges do you deal with as a woman artist?

SD: The biggest challenge that all women have is the ability to balance their time  in the  professional field as well as in the home. My work as a sculptor is very satisfactory since what I need to perform as a professional and to feel good about myself. I do. For me, it is also very rewarding to be the mother of two beautiful daughters who are my strength and support; together we grow and struggle to fulfill our goals and to become better human beings.

SP: Who has been a main influence on your work?

SP: Sculptors Néstor Zeledon, Zuñiga, Domingo Branches. Donald Jiménez. Aquilles among others have exerted certain influence on my work.

SP: What gives you the most pleasure about your work?

SP: I like sharing my knowledge with other people who also take pleasure in art and want to learn. Equally, they have helped me to grow; everything is a consecutive and reciprocal action. I have noticed the great necessity for me to enrich the field of teaching in the different communities without neglecting my work in sculpture and painting.

Duran plans to look for more opportunities to participate in exhibitions and to take her work to galleries. She wants to develop a website. She will also be a participant in the First International Stone Symposium in Puntarenas in April 2006

'Sculptural Pursuit. Winter/Fall. Vol. 4, No. 4. "The Magic of Five Costa Rica sculptors." pp. 12-15.