| Roberta Laidman | ||
| Birth Date: 1943 |
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Artist Gallery |
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| Dogs communicate directly; when they love us they love us unconditionally. They don’t ask what we’ve done to deserve their devotion. Roberta Laidman’s ceramic dogs have this same direct emotional appeal – without words or pretence.
Laidman studied at California State University where she earned her degree in Anthropology in 1965. While earning her degree she also pursued painting and drawing, but this changed in the late 70s when Laidman meet the Dutch ceramic artist, Marijke van Vlaardingen. Laidman became hooked on clay. She started creating human forms, but in 1987 Laidman took another opportunity to work again with Vlaardingen in Holland. Her first work was an abstracted human figure – but by the time she finished it, she had became lonesome for her two dogs – and she has been sculpting dogs since that time.
In her own words Laidman talks about her work: “I start with a knowledge of real breeds, but when I finally go to the studio the dogs take on a life of their own. They tell me what they want to be as if I had nothing to say about it. It sounds crazy, but each dog creates its own character. Sometimes they have long noses and at other times their faces are all pushed in. Sometimes they’re very serious dogs and at other times frivolous. How that comes about, I don’t know. I just make them”.
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