Artist Statement - Erotica series

The intensity of the Bondage Series and Freaks and Victims was exhausting. I needed a break. A practical need fueled the beginning of my Erotica Series.

I loved the fireplace in the bedroom of our big old house, but not the wintry winds that blew down the chimney and into the room. I needed a solid, snug fitting screen. The available manufactured screens did not fit our fireplace, so naturally, I decided to make one myself.

The screen would be figurative sculpture, the subject erotic. The challenge I set for myself was to use both very low relief and full round in the same sculpture - taking it a step further than I had in the Family Album series.

After the first one, I couldn't resist making more.

When my parents came to visit, my Dad laughed, but Mom hollered a disapproving "Oh Arlene!" When our daughter came home from college, she rolled her eyes and muttered an exasperated "Oh, Mom."

After the screens, I made about a dozen smaller erotic low reliefs in plaster. And then I was done.

I made frames for the screens and they were exhibited in a solo show in Philadelphia in 1980.