Patricia Volk was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She studied Three Dimensional Design at Middlesex Polytechnic and graduated with a BA in Ceramics from Bath College of Higher Education/ Bath Spa University. She was Regional Winner of the ING Discerning Eye prize in 2007 and has been shortlisted for the prestigious Brian Mercer Residency. Her strikingly colourful sculptures are included in the public collections of Swindon Art Gallery and Museum, and the Canada Wharf Art Collection.
Her work is included in 50 Women Sculptors, the first published book to give an overview of women sculptors from 1880 to present day, which explores the work of “extraordinary women artists who have forged a name for themselves in a male arena, as well as breaking rules, pushing boundaries and inspiring us with their visionary creations”. Patricia Volk is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Sculptors and an RWA academician. She exhibits in the UK and internationally.
“As a sculptor I love working with the directness of clay, using all the techniques, coiling and slab building, making one-off pieces, which are fired then finished with acrylic paint. I put one colour against the other in a way that is satisfying or dynamic. It’s purely visual and non-intellectual. If there is a deeper meaning, I like to think that is brought by the viewer: I don’t like to limit their experience by giving a sculpture a set explanation or description. Sometimes I know what is going on in my head, but more often I let my hands do the ‘thinking’.
I like the thought that the pieces look light, and float – a contradiction to the obvious physical weight of clay. I am drawn to the combination of non-figurative form and colour to set off a series of juxtaposing ideas in the viewer’s mind – tranquility, elegance, power, sadness, rest, action, conflict, a sense of movement: all these things triggering human emotions of some kind. What excites me is the abstraction rather than trying to create a piece that represents or illustrates an idea. Really, working in clay is like play to me and, being dyslexic, I have trouble expressing ideas in words, so I chose a medium where words aren’t necessary”.