We were lucky to catch up with Wendy Klemperer recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Wendy, thanks for sitting with us today to chat about topics that are relevant to so many. One of those topics is communication skills, because we live in an age where our ability to communicate effectively can be like a superpower. How did you develop your ability to communicate effectively?
My upbringing emphasized rational science; conversation was intellectual, with the expectation of supporting statements with evidence and learning. I had to overcome shyness, and as the youngest, a tendency to speak and less assuredly than other people. I was more comfortable letting others speak about me than describing myself or putting myself forward.
Doing my first big solo show in Maine was a great learning process: what could I envision, what could I actually get done. My sister Joyce Klemperer took an interest in documentary video and filmmaking in the early 2000’s. Always supportive and involved in my work, she began filming me welding and installing sculptures. The show at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in 2009 provided a deadline to produce a piece. She filmed me so often I became used to the camera and to being observed. Working on the spoken interviews was at times excruciating: honing in on a particular point, repeating it over and over to try to sound “natural” felt on the spot and ridiculous even though it was just me and her. But this forced me to actually articulate about my work, to get past the feeling that I had nothing to say, or that what I did say was simplistic or insufficient. I also learned to stop saying mindless fillers like umm, you know, and like! This work with her gave me a great deal of confidence during many videos and interviews in the following years.
Giving talks about my work was a also great way to develop confidence and articulation. The first few times I was quite nervous and my voice started out with a quaver. Over time I learned to organize my talks by gathering the best and/or most interesting photos of the sculptures as well as of my raw materials and process. In preparation I went through them, noting to myself how it was I came to make a piece, and how that led to the next thing. I learned from people’s questions what was most interesting to the audience, and would incorporate that in the next talk. Years of waitressing and bartending engendered self possession as well; somewhat on stage, one has to take the initiative to approach customers and engage them, be somewhat entertaining, and learn not to be thin skinned.
Not being a conceptual artist, I often felt like I didn’t have real (valid) “ideas”. Talking with my boyfriend at the time around 2000, he asked me about my ideas for a commission I was a finalist for. I was smitten and somewhat in awe of him because he was a“smartist” showing in “real” galleries while the places I showed in seemed to me less cool and fancy. I hemmed and hawed, eventually saying I felt like I didn’t actually have any ideas. He turned to face me (he was driving) and said, “of course you have ideas! Any decision you make has ideas behind it; the way you flick the hind foot of a jumping deer is an idea that expresses something”. That really struck me and stuck with me. It opened up the notion that I didn’t have to have a Sol Lewitt or Robert Smithson conceptual approach to still have intellect or concepts in my work.
Finally, it’s a revelation when you remind yourself that people (even curators and famous artists) on the other end are just people too; you might open up the lines of communications by asking them questions, expressing interest in them and their work, get a dynamic going.
Please tell our readers about what you do, what you feel is most exciting or special about it, as well as anything else you’d like folks to know about your brand/art/etc. If relevant, please also tell our readers about any new events.
I am most known for my large scale outdoor sculpture. The imagery that pervades my work reflects a lifelong fascination with animals. To make the large scale sculptures I search scrap yards for industrial refuse ravaged by usage and demolition. Bent and twisted, such pieces contain energy and potential new life. My welding process is a kind of three dimensional gesture drawing. A network of steel lines builds a skeletal form containing both presence and absence. I investigate the body language of animals to express a feeling or state of being, with motion conveying emotion. Focusing on the animal realm seems no less important to me than on that of humans; it probes the continuity and relationship between all forms of life on earth.
In recent years I’m exploring indoor installations incorporating light, shadow, movement, and color, using hanging silhouettes derived from my sculptures. These have an element of fantasy, of allowing the imagination to play in a liminal alternative world. Also lately I am painting more: mostly small scale watercolor and ink, with loose brushwork and ink washes evoking movement and vibrant life.
Current and upcoming projects:
Wrought Taxonomies is a solo show of outdoor sculptures, as well as drawings and paintings indoors, at the Vanderbilt Museum in Centerport, NY (www.vanderbilt.org) up through 4/22/2025.
Uprising is a solo exhibit also indoors and out at BIG Arts, Sanibel Island, FL (www.bigarts.org) through 4/28/2024.
This summer and fall I will have work in Birth of a Shadow, a group sculpture show at Chesterwood Historic Site in Stockbridge MA, (https://www.chesterwood.org)
and also in Sculpture at The Mount, Edith Wharton’s historic estate in Lenox, MA (https://www.edithwharton.org/).
I’m showing work with Red Fox Contemporary in Pound Ridge, NY on an ongoing basis, as well as Visions West Contemporary in Montana, Diehl Gallery in Wyoming, and Sponder gallery in Boca Raton, FL.
What are three most important qualities, skills, and/or areas of knowledge -most impactful?
1. Learning to weld in 1990. I used to make sculptures out of tree branches and other fragile materials that attracted me. These all fell apart over the years. Frustrated, I decided to learn to weld, eventually making durable pieces, which in turn opened up the world of outdoor sculpture.
2. Learning to be with myself and organize my time. I struggled with this most long ago at two prestigious art residencies. For some reason these opportunities- accolades you’d think would bring on confidence – did the opposite. For a time I was sick with fear and indecision. I flailed about madly making work, but I was beset by periodic panic attacks. Everything seemed completely existential, my choices now determined my whole future path in life…what was I to do? Paint or make sculpture? Figuration or abstraction? These age old questions seems utterly dire. This was exacerbated by the negative voices in my head, especially as they came from loved our respected sources. Decades later, I still don’t know why I tortured myself so, but now know that many artists are plagued by doubt, indecision, and negative internal voices. All I can say is it took me years to work through it; and of course it never entirely goes away. One trick I developed was to tell myself I was just trying something “for now”, it didn’t have to have the weight of all future committment. Another thing that helps me is activity in the physical world: exercise and Nature. Basketball and riding horses have been my outlets, love, and addiction all my life, ways to keep me happy and my inner demons at bay. Compare and despair (often brought on by social media) is always a trap. But I think it is like shadow to light, an intrinsic aspect of being an ambitious artist who does not settle. The struggle is to keep the balance, to use those feelings to spur one on to more efforts. And the other side is to remember that we are all different, and all individual. No one else can do our work, it is up to us to do it, and not someone else’s. I often reflect on the Martha Graham quote:
“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching …”
3. Showing with June LaCombe: curator, environmentalist and organic gardener in Maine. Over the two decades working together she has become one of my dearest friends. She promotes mostly New England sculptors whose work is involved with nature. I was recommended to her by another sculptor I’d shown with who thought we would be a good fit. Working withher has been a great partnership; we are compatible with convergent values and goals. She has a great feel for sculpture in the landscape; in addition, she’s efficient, decisive, and knows her clientele and their homes.
www.junelacombesculpture.com
What Has Been your biggest area of growth in the past 12 months?
Painting more. I love painting, but it draws on some place in me that is both exuberant and sensitive. I have big emotional ups and downs with painting. Now that I am getting back to it I hope to engage in many ways, (whether its landscape, still; life, animal, figure, abstract, small, large) to allow myself to be open and above all to let the paint speak and glow.
I am working with The Vanderbilt Museum in Centerport Long Island to produce a catalog from my show “Wrought Taxonomies” (on view until 4/22/25). It will be over 70 pages with three essays and many color photos, an ambitious project that I am excited and challenged to develop.
What Was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
They wanted all three of their kids to go into science, believing it the most fascinating field, yet none of us did. Beyond that urging, however, they always emphasized loving what you did as the priority. Education was the focus, and wholehearted dedication to your vocation the ideal. They loved pure science for its own sake: the effort to understand the workings of world around us. I think this mindset also gave them a deep appreciation for art: music, literature, visual arts, all of it. Once I’d veered away from science, choosing to go full tilt into art, they supported me wholeheartedly. Ten years after art school, when I was waitressing for a living and filled with conflict and doubt, they urged me on. They helped me financially and emotionally and never questioned the worth of my venture. A lot of my friends were struggling at that point and did not have that encouragement, they were met instead with suggestions about “getting real” from their families, which of course only added to their troubles. I am forever grateful to my parents for their freely given lifelong support and love.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.wendyklemperer.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wendyklemperer/
Image Credits
Adrienne Catanese, Joyce klemperer,
