Rock Solid
Artist Irene Ritter comes into her own with meditative, at times playful sculptures
At 61 years old, Nashville sculptor Irene Ritter has found her calling. After enjoying a lifetime of many careers, including magazine publisher, deputy mayor and interior decorator, she now dedicates her time to stone carving. Her sculpture career began eight years ago, after she attended a two-week course at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tenn. Since then, she has returned to Arrowmont and other workshops, sharpening her skills and amassing a large body of work. With "Mother Nature/Human Nature," at the Tennessee Arts Commission through Oct. 1, Ritter is publicly showing her work for the first time.
A nostalgic love for rocks drew Ritter to stone carving. She recollects her first rock encounter at the age of 3, when she tried stealing a geode by casually slipping it under her sundress at a neighbor's house. Since then, Ritter's rock collecting has been complemented by her passion for travel, and she now brings back suitcases full of stones from England, Russia, Alaska, Latvia and Nova Scotia that she uses in her sculpture.
Ritter's art can be delineated into two styles: meditative, abstract assemblages and figurative work. With their voluptuous, expressive female forms, her figures have been compared to the work of Henry Moore and self-taught Tennessee artist William Edmondson, but her sense of humor and sharp wit lend originality to her conceptually challenging, playful sculptures. "Unilateral Disarmament" depicts a slender limestone arm, disconnected at the shoulder and resting on the point of the elbow, seemingly weightless. The delicate wrist is cocked, the fingers suspended. The title references the politics of war and a one-sided reduction of "arms," playing off the double meaning of the word as both a body part and a weapon.
However much Ritter's figures depict female forms, they just as often enter a genderless space and lean more toward stylization and abstraction. Her work is elegantly simple, the contours and strong lines driving the energy and expression of the works. "She hit rock bottom" depicts a figure twisted on the floor, pulling its knees into its chest. Without the title, the figure becomes neutral in gender, the long face and contorted body embodying despair.
Ritter's debut exhibit demonstrates a dedication to fine craftsmanship, exemplified in her polished carvings, which require patience and skill to render—one intimately sized work can take up to three months to carve. She touches upon diverse issues in "Mother Nature/Human Nature," and her sculptures are imbued with a sophistication honed from a lifetime of experiences. A number of her works serve as life markers, such as "Proud as a Peacock," a delicate bird resting on a totem that Ritter carved for her daughter after she earned her master's degree, and "Crowing Glory," a proud and reverent woman posed on bent knee, head tilted up to the sky with her arms overhead.
Ritter may seem to be a late bloomer, but bursts of creative output often need the right circumstances to take place. According to research on creativity, ample time, resources and inspiration catapult artistic production, and in Ritter's case, it seems she is now in the midst of her creative renaissance, 61 years into her life.
—Nicole Pietrantoni
