Marijke van Vlaardingen

Frans Duckers

Jose Vermeersch

From left to right: "Roger Wrote a Book" by Marijke van Vlaardingen, "Girl with Fish" by Frans Duckers and standing figure (title unknown) by Jose Vermeersch, a kind and generous man, d. 1998. Click on image for better view.

Artist's Statement by Roberta Laidman

My primary metaphor is dogs. I relate to them on an intuitive level and admire them for their integrity.
Unique ceramic sculptures and models for bronze castings (click here to learn a little about bronze casting) are initially created in clay. I use a slab technique, exclusive of internal armatures. This allows me to push at the clay from the inside and create an exterior surface tension which suggests flesh and bone beneath. Treatment of the surface varies with the intent of the work. Sometimes I use slabs rolled in clay powder, sometimes different color clays, engobes and body stains. Occasionally I use glazes.

My work is influenced primarily by Dutch and Belgian figurative ceramic sculpture. My first exposure to clay sculpture was through the Dutch artist Marijke van Vlaardingen with whom I first worked in West Africa in 1979 and later in the South of France, Alameda, California and Mesa, Arizona. This Northern European influence was reinforced by two separate work periods at the Keramische Werkcentrum in Heusden, Holland, one of which was with Jose Vermeersch, the Belgian figurative ceramic sculptor. Frans Duckers, another Dutch sculptor, was also very helpful and influential. Without the guidance of these fine sculptors there would have been no "LAIDMAN DOGS".