About Award Winning Animal Sculptor, Laurie Sharkus
Laurie has had her hands in clay since early childhood and was encouraged by her parents who supplied pads of paper, clay and other materials to fuel her imagination. Throughout her life her desire to create was matched by an ever alluring love for animals and nature.
An art teacher in high school encouraged Laurie to have a ‘One Man Show’ after which she decided to pursue a career in Art. The local Monroe County Community College in her hometown offered a broad art curriculum where she studied painting and drawing with Professor Ted Vassar and Ceramics and Art History with Professor Gary Wilson.
While Laurie’s passion was sculpting in clay, drawing and painting, she made the difficult decision to concentrate on a career in Graphic Design. Studies continued at Eastern Michigan University where an enthusiasm for life drawing ensued. After acquiring her B.F.A. and getting married, Laurie worked as a Graphic Designer in the advertising field. Then, after having two sons only 17 months apart she became a stay at home mom, a choice made with no regrets. Years later, the yearning for clay would resurface again and with a return to MCCC to take more ceramics classes, the animal images began to emerge once more.
After completing her first sculpture of a large green sea turtle upon bisque firing, it needed a glaze. To get the effect Laurie was after, she decided to paint it with Gouache paint. Still, unsatisfied with the brightness of the colors she heeded Professor Gary Wilson’s advice to try an ancient firing technique called ‘smoke firing’. Outside, a brick kiln was filled with shredded newspaper and straw and the turtle was placed belly up, on top, after being covered with more straw and paper it was lit on fire and topped with a garbage can lid. When the thick clouds of smoke cleared away and the kiln was cool we pulled the turtle from the kiln. The results were startling! The turtle had been through a kind of ‘transformation’, the bright colors of paint were muted from the smoke, and the marks left by the flames seemed to impart a spark of ‘life’ to the creature. It was as if the turtle had braved many years of swimming in the vast ocean depths. After that moment, Laurie was ‘hooked’ on the smoke firing method as the vital finishing touch for her sculptures, she enjoys the whole spontaneous process and how it bestows a sense of mystery and truth to her work.
Animals, the environment and the human figure have been an endless source of inspiration for Laurie’s sculpture. She is further intrigued by the serendipitous nature of clay and hopes that people who see and touch her sculptures will in turn be ‘touched’ by her art.
