About Pamela Soldwedel | Abstract & Contemporary Sculpture in Metal and Stone by Pamela Soldwedel

Pamela Soldwedel Fine Abstract Sculptor Creating Stone Sculpture, Metal Sculpture, Bronze Sculpture, and Mixed-Media Sculpture. Pamela Soldwedel Sculptures are collected throughout the world by private collectors and companies alike.

It was my father, artist Kip Soldwedel from whom I inherited my deep feelings for the sea. He interpreted his feelings in his paintings, as I am interpreting these feelings in my abstract stone, bronze and mixed media sculptures . . . capturing movements from the waters of life with contoured forms and fluid, sleek finishes. I intensify the finishes by adding contrasting details: carefully tooled striations and naturally coarse-faced accents, like wind-ruffled seas, eddying currents, churning ocean depths.

All are amplified when I symbolize emotional or physical trauma. Realizing that “where there’s life . . . there’s hope,” I position the fractured parts almost back in place . . . offset just enough to expose the split, the glitter of raw, natural rock-face; yet able to see that the sections can be fitted back together. It is as though one may have been terribly wounded; but know that, regardless of the fact that one will be scarred forever, one’s spirit, mind and body may heal to continue one’s cyclical journey.

Actually, I appreciate this smooth-rough aspect, considering only polished smoothness to be too bland; not interesting enough. An exception is when I wish only to calm, to quiet as in the piece MANTRA, where the essence of the sculpture is tranquility.

As I sculpt, I’m engulfed by waves of buoying vitality and a stimulating sense of adventure. Each curve holds promise of illumination. This, in spite of the dust, noise and danger associated with my work. I am always entranced, enthralled. The spell continues until literally the very last, where I indicate tension by carving the sculptures so that they appear to balance on minute foot prints.

These footprints themselves have a special meaning: the sculptures represent life cycles, soaring from the pivot points that begin as the Human Mother. I then carve life’s variations through loops that surge wave-like: up . . . down . . . in . . . out and around . . . then ebb back to the tiny foot prints, now the final resting place: the Earth Mother; or, as many do la Mer…somewhere on a calm day…into Mother Ocean. Like my father.

Perhaps the observer will share in my excitement by stroking my sculptures . . . enjoying the energy that accompanies creative highs; and, at the end, be soothed, understanding the peace I’ve found in these tactile expressions.