Three by Three: Guest Artists in Focus
QUESTION 2. The figures you make often seem caught mid-emotion — not smiling, not neutral, but thinking or reacting. What draws you to those quieter, in-between expressions?
ANSWER 2. I think that’s really where true emotion resides. If you pay attention, people’s faces reveal so much more than their words or overt expression, and that’s what I intend to capture in most of my work. This is likely why I’m drawn to female figures. In my experience women tend to hold in true emotion being told we’re too angry or too emotional and learning from a young age to hold those things in. I would love for that to change and in the meantime, as I said, I’d like to give those honest emotions a voice thru my work.
Colleen Wright
Sculptor
MEDIUM: polymer clay and paper mache
BIO: I'm a self taught artist focusing on figurative sculpture for 25+ years. Currently living on the bayou in Mississippi but close to New Orleans LA, where I lived for the last 30 years and where my heart still resides. The main focus of my work has always been girls and women figures.
My initial foray into sculpting, when I was quite young, was paper mache. For matters of space, time and ease, I ended up switching to polymer clay as my main medium for almost 20 years. We’re recent empty nesters, have moved into a bigger home and are more financially secure which has allowed me the freedom to get back to my first love in creating, paper mache.
My polymer clay work deals mostly with mental illness such as depression, which I’ve suffered from my entire life, and trauma. You’ll see themes of sadness, ennui and pain in the almost exclusively children’s faces I sculpt.
I believe I worked thru my own childhood trauma thru that body of work and now with Paper Mache as my main medium I intend to explore more mature woman characters. My intention is to capture the wisdom, fear, contemplation and joy of women. This is important to me at this time as in the US we are experiencing heightened aggression toward women and rampant misogyny. I feel compelled to give women’s complex and varied response and feelings to this troubling environment a voice thru this work.
LINK: Facebook
QUESTION 3. Paper-mâché comes with practical challenges: drying time, sagging, balancing weight. What’s one technical breakthrough you’ve had — a trick with armatures, layering, or sealing — that changed your build quality the most?
ANSWER 3. Probably air dry paper clays and or foam clays. Utilizing just cardboard or found objects as armatures, traditional paper mache can at times look boxy and rigid. Utilizing the relatively newer clay products on my armatures, underneath the paper mache I’m able to create softer, curvy, more rounded features. I’m able to achieve more movement and emotion, more character with my pieces. These products weren’t available when I first started in paper mache years ago, I’ve really noticed a difference in the possibilities they create. I’m always looking for and trying new products and techniques with my work.
QUESTION 1. Your sculptures have these wonderfully textured, expressive faces and hair. What steps in your process let you push paper-mâché past “smooth and simple” into something so rich and characterful?
ANSWER 1. After working in smooth polymer clay for so many years, I think creating texture is one thing that really drew me back to working in paper mache. Paper mache is so versatile, there’s so many objects, what would be trash, clays, pastes and glues you can use in your art. I have an absolute blast coming up with new ways to create new textures and surfaces. Emotion is my main goal on the overall piece and I want to achieve that not only in facial features but by using texture and color as well.
Bust #1, 2025
Peace, 2025
Bust #4, 2025
All copyright and reproduction rights are reserved by Colleen Wright.
Artwork may not be reproduced in any form without the artist's express written permission.
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