Interview

David: There’s a mythic or archetypal characteristic to a lot of your sculptures. Have myths played a role in your work?

Edmund: Yes, I like myths. I have always liked fairy tales and myths. I like

classical subjects. I have a fantasy mind.

David: Have any other artists influenced you?

Edmund: No, I didn’t want to think about other artists. I wanted to discover what I would do. I don’t think there’s any direct influence that I could specify.

David: Maybe not so much in terms of style, so much as influenced your interpretation of life.

Edmund: Yes. I used to go to see the museums in New York. I’d go to the Museum of Modern Art. I remember Lembruk, Gaston La Chaise, Houdon, and Francoise Rude sculptures that moved me. I remember seeing a Brancusi and I remember a number of sculptures that I’ve seen in the gardens of UCLA. I mean, I’ve taken all that in. I’ve felt kindred and related and adored the there-ness and the power of what each person has expressed. And I want to do it too! They make their statement their way, and I can’t accept any of their styles or fashion as a guidepost for myself.

To be myself, I’ve got to only reach into myself. And myself is a product of what I’ve absorbed in my observations, and through my relationships, emotionally. They have always inspired me to want to express my individual powers, to create lovely art objects that will communicate whatever they will communicate. There’s no intention of what it has to communicate. I know it communicates without intention as a result of this absorbed being-ness.

David: What inspires you?

Edmund: What inspires me is the mass, the volume of the piece of wood, and I dance around it, a dream of what it might be. Or I just begin to discover by starting to clean it, scraping off parts, getting rid of parts that I don’t think I want, looking for the mass to manifest itself. That’s the excitement. That’s where the adventure is, and that’s what inspires me – that I’m living an adventure, living discovery of myself, and the possibilities of transferring this inner adventure into a reality.

David: Have you ever had the experience when you’re working on your sculptures that something was working through you, or you weren’t quite in control of what was happening?

Edmund: Oh unquestionably. Your whole intuitive psyche is functioning. An inexplicable world of activity is going on that is a total delight to be immersed in, and unable to explain, right? (Laughter)

David: You said to me earlier that if you have an image really well formed in your head, then why actually manifest it, and bring it into form? If you were on a

desert Island and no other human beings were around, would you have sculpted? Or was part of the motivation to sculpt in order to communicate, to get it out of you and for other people to see?

Edmund: I would have had to yield to the process of creating regardless, because it’s a pleasurable sensation. There’s an erotic sexual satisfaction involved in it. It is birth. It is creation. It’s getting pregnant. It satisfied all of those feminine needs. I’m a perfectly androgynous person. I have a female sensibility, and a male body to carry out the functions required to fulfill her dreams. He can fulfill her dreams.

David: How do you see the relationship between the masculine and feminine polarities playing a role in creativity?

Edmund: I don’t know that I can explain that. I don’t think I can articulate some of those very subtle things that I do think about, and have clear communication with myself about, because I see in very rapid intelligence and pictures. There’s a high-speed combination, and very often, internal visual pictures can supply a tremendous amount of information that can’t be expressed verbally. And I rely more on that form of process to get whatever results it is that I get.

David: But you feel like it’s the feminine part of you that comes up with the creative ideas, and the masculine part of you then implements them?

Edmund: Yes, that’s right. But people pooh-pooh me when I say that all the time. I rarely discuss that with anyone, because they don’t want to hear that. I don’t know why. They just think that’s ridiculous. But it makes perfect sense to me, and looking at my life, I’ve observed it in myself. I mean, I can use chisels and saws, and hammer at wood. I can sew, cook, and clean house. I’ve got both sides working. But we all have both sides working in varying degrees.

David: Well sure, that was one of Carl Jung’s ideas, but most people are pretty lop-sided though.

Edmund: That’s true, but it’s there if you are willing to allow it to reveal itself, and allow yourself to get it in balance.

David: Are there ever messages that you’re trying to get across in your work, or is it purely the erotic thrill of doing it that has really motivated you?

Edmund: I’m not a conceptual artist. I’m not trying to get a message across, but there are messages none-the-less.

David: What do you mean?

Edmund: Every person who looks at it gets a different message.

David: In their interpretation of it?

Edmund: Of course, it provokes messages, and it has hidden messages that I have never articulated. I resent it when I have to try to do that.

David: Like when somebody asks you to get up and “tell us a little bit about this piece.”

Edmund: Yeah. I don’t mind telling them the experiences that I’ve had making the piece. I’ve had some very dramatic experiences with pieces, and with myself. I’ve had fights, and arguments, and I’ve seen things fail that I had to make right. But I can’t articulate those activities between masculine and feminine. I just know they’re both working, and I’m very aware of it. I’ve gotten more aware of it as I get older, and am able to look back and analyze my life.

David: Masculine and feminine energies can be a very powerful force when combined together, but either on their own seem kind of weak to me.

Edmund: That’s true.