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Babette Harvey's work is an exploration and celebration
of the relationship between humans and nature. She draws and
carves nature imagery on her work because she finds inspiration
& solace in the natural world. Babette uses the human form as
a reminder of our connection to and dependence on nature for
our survival.
The earth is a beautiful place to spend a lifetime and it would
be nice to leave it that way until it dies a natural death along
with our sun in about five billion years. Much of her art gives
expression to her feelings and thoughts about the natural world
and the human relationship to it.
According to Babette, "beneath our outer facade of skin it's
easy to see that we are made of the same stuff that all living
things are made of and that we are dependent on the natural
world. In seeing our interdependency with nature we are more
likely to value it and thus preserve it. We can ravage the earth
or live in balance with it. It is our choice; each of us makes
that choice every day".
Babette uses two different carving techniques for decorating
her clay art; relief and sgraffito. Relief carving produces
a slightly 3-dimentional image while the sgraffito image is
either flush with or into the surface of the clay.
On many of her pieces she tells a story with the images. The
surfaces of her award winning clay sculptures clearly reflect
her love of nature. She covers them with realistic images of
plant and animal species.
Gingko's and orchids, frogs and birds, bamboo and snails, every
sculpture is a carefully composed montage of the living world.
Babette has been drawing and painting nature imagery ever since
she can remember. She credits her parents love and curiosity
of the natural world as a major influence on her "lifelong love
affair with forests, rivers, and all things wild".
While growing up in Southern California, Babette enjoyed summers
hiking and camping with her parents and siblings. Jane Goodall,
the primatologist turned environmentalist, was her childhood
hero. She reflects, "I thought she was brilliant! She described
chimpanzees as sentient beings with thoughts & feelings similar
to humans. She opened my eyes to a holistic perception of the
world and our place in it."
Babette studied ceramics at Oregon College of Art and Craft
in Portland, Oregon and now lives in Portland, where she is
a studio clay artist as well as a college ceramics instructor.
Babette has won numerous awards for her figurative sculptures
and they can be seen in many fine art galleries throughout the
U.S.
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914
water street, port townsend, washington 98368 | telephone (360) 385-3630