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Bella Feldman, "Untitled"
(Interview Continued)
B.M.: Bella, For many years your sculptures have been both rooted in the love of material and craft and the playful, yet often dark interpretation of aspects of the human condition, creating what critic Harold Rosenberg called “anxious objects”. How do these images of objects come to you?
Bella: Regarding Anxious Objects. I have lived through at least five wars that the U.S. has been engaged in. As a child I listened to Hitler’s speeches, witnessing my parents’ dread and anxiety for their relatives (Polish Jews). We seem now to be perpetually at war. I am pessimistic about mankind’s future, but I diffuse my anxiety with “black” humor. These images arise from my subconscious which has been fueled by the times I’ve lived and continue to live in.
B.M.: (Bella) The juxtaposition of glass elements to the metal in more recent years, and now color, has given a bit more lightness, delicacy to your work. Does this correspond to a place in your life where making art has become smoother, less of a struggle?
Bella: Regarding the use of glass. Lightness and delicacy is not new to my work. For a number of years I worked with fiberglass and resin membranes which looked like they could float away despite their size. I have always used tension as part of my sculpture vocabulary. I turned to using glass with metal because of the contrast and the vocabulary of tension set up using these materials in the same sculpture. The Sculpture Department of CCA is located right next to the Glass Department, so I developed a familiarity with the material. I was told by the Glass Department that it wouldn’t work to blow glass into metal forms as I did in my Flask series and War Toy series, but I did and it worked and now a lot of people do it.
B.M.: (Bella) You now spend several months per year in Europe, where you have a very small studio space. How has this affected your art?
Bella: My partner lives in Europe and we go back and forth—neither of us willing to pull up stakes. I always have to do art and so I started to work in two dimensions in watercolor, pastel, and collage in a 9×9 foot room. You are what you do and now I am working in a 2D/3D mode in my Oakland studio of which you can see examples in this show.
B.M.: JP, you have participated in some of the decision making about Bella’s work, and have brought into the studio some ideas and techniques that she has integrated into her sculpture. At what point did you feel that Bella was interested in your input? Did this come naturally for both of you?
Bella: JP has contributed to the problem solving which is different from the decision making. The decisions are mine.
JP: Bella usually says my suggestions were off the mark when I first started working for her—which I totally disagree with. There’s no question that I’ve learned an amazing amount from her. But it did take a couple months for her to start trusting my judgment.
B.M.: (JP) Did this make it easier or harder for you to begin finding your own way in sculpture?
JP: Easier. The hardest part of establishing a career in the arts, I think, is discipline. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, and Bella gave me the opportunity to be constantly making art, three days a week for her and four days a week for me.
