Sharon Bartel Clements is the 3-Dimensional Artist Spotlight winning artist for the month of February 2018. She is a New Mexico based artist and sculptor. Five years ago, Sharon conceived of the idea for her Ancient Warrior Torso Project, an installation of 30 cast female torsos that captures their lives, their strengths and struggles, and how they have survived. To date, she has fulfilled her goal of 30 completed torsos and is collecting their documented stories to be included into a book.

Sharon’s Solo Art Exhibition will be featured on the website for the month of February 2018. The gallery will promote Sharon and her work on the Fusion Art website, individual online press releases to hundreds of outlets, email blasts, in online event calendars, art news websites and through the gallery’s extensive social media outlets. Fusion Art’s objective is to promote the Artist Spotlight winning artists, worldwide, to art professionals, gallerists, collectors and buyers.

Please read Sharon’s Biography below as she describes the history and inspiration for this project in her own words. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see her exhibition.

If you are interested in purchasing any of these award-winning pieces, or to see more of Sharon’s work, please visit her website.  Each of these torsos have a story. If you are interested in learning more please contact Sharon directly.

Also, please visit Fusion Art’s YouTube Channel to see Sharon’s Solo Art Exhibition Video.

Thank you to all the artists who participated in the Artist Spotlight competition and congratulations to Sharon and the other Artist Spotlight winning artists.

Sharon Bartel Clements Biography

About five years ago, Sharon Bartel Clements conceived of the idea for her Ancient Warrior Torso Project, an installation of about 30 cast female torsos that captures their lives, their strengths and struggles, and how they have survived. To date, she has fulfilled her goal of 30 completed torsos and will collect their documented stories to be included into a book by the artist.

The word “ancient” naturally brings historical references to mind. The visual quality of being ancient, can also mean something lost and then found. Lessons that were learned ….something buried or destroyed and then rebuilt.

Women who are the warriors in the world, having many different types of relationships and various experiences, and they have conquered tragedy that has affected their lives…all this, gives them a voice. Each has their own voice behind the torso.

The battles fought on the field of long ago can now be seen as an analogy of hardships that are overcome with today’s modern problems. She is looking to bring the ancient artistic traditions of the Terracotta Warriors into a modern context with contemporary methods. For her, she has had an art practice for many years, however, in The Ancient Warrior Torso Project she found a young/new voice and vision that has a link to the past while coming to terms with present concerns. Her travels have changed her perspective on patterns and human diversity. She has seen the “Terracotta Warriors & Horses” outside Xi’an, China, whose presence had an impact on her. The unique individual became a terracotta pattern, their individuality was lost and their machine-like bearing was the most impactful part of their being.

In an age where we are bombarded by living in the physical, it’s easy to forget that we are spiritual beings on a journey with our own stories to tell that are ours alone. We, as well as all warrior women, carry within us, an ancient wisdom. This wisdom was passed down through the ages and was somehow lost, or forgotten. We are all given a path to follow and a story that is ours alone.

The Torso Project is an installation that explores the viewer’s reactions and thoughts, physically and emotionally, as they walk among the individual pieces. The viewer wanders into an environment of torsos of different sizes, heights and shapes. Each torso reflects a collective power and a re-awakened voice within its armor of hardened plaster, shell-like shield.

Something is observed; connections are made and transferred, between the viewer to the individual torso, and the viewer to the installation as a whole. The viewer takes on a mental attitude that determines their point of view. The gallery space is filled with the torsos’ presence and the word ancient is no longer part of their being. Their painted wrappings and patterned exterior reveal their inner strength. Within the gallery space, a synergistic presence emerges, as the viewer finds themselves surrounded by torsos.

The transparent film of the patterned collages are representations of the patterns we ourselves reinforce throughout our lives. Every torso has a spine that represents the strength and courage it takes to overcome any adversity and move forward.

The torsos are made by using plaster wrap applied to each individual woman’s torso. The individual torso is transformed to a shield of protection. Once the hard protective plaster shell is removed from the torso it becomes part of the collective consciousness of the woman as warrior. Collage materials are used for their color and symbolism.

She would like to see all the torsos in one space; all different shapes, sizes, and heights representing a totality of the woman as the warrior archetype.

You can visit Sharon Bartel Clements’ website at www.bartelclements.com and contact her at sharon@bartelclements.com.

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