Why Is An Artist Compelled to Create?

Trish Pleasant 

“I’ve always been an artist.  At some point in my life, I just switched from mud pies to metal sculpture.  It’s the same process and the same joy that bubbles up inside me and spills out of me and onto my work.  Every creation bears the vibration of its creator, and every viewer experiences the emotion of the artist  who infused the artwork to some degree.    I am aware of ithis phenomenon and I consciously infuse each sculpture with  the same pure joy, love, and peace that I first experienced as a child making mud pies, 

I was born in Rising Star, Texas and grew up there and in Schriever,Louisiana, south of New Orleans, where my family moved when I was a child.  .  I grew up watching my dad fabricate parts out of steel and fire for his old HD11 Dozer.  Being a wise man, he gave me my own welding helmet, knowing that I was compelled to watch the flames as he stitched the pieces together with fire and welding rods.  Many years later, when I was in college in Lafayette, Louisiana, and running a drop zone, a skydiver desperate for a jump from my airplane and out of money, traded me his torch and oxygen/acetylene gas bottles for skydives.  The first time I scraped the flint across the starter and brought that beautiful blue flame to life changed my life.  From that point, all I wanted to do was make welded metal sculpture.  I was an architecture student at University of Louisiana, Lafayette.  With the whoosh of a single flame, architecture wasn’t IT anymore.  Sculpture was. 

I  changed my path and continued to hone my skills. My dad was dead, killed in a plane crash in 1976, but his spirit seemed to lean over me as the copper and brass whispered their secrets.  I was always astounded at the forms that emerged from my torch.  Natural forms are most beautiful to me, and the familiar water plants from the marshes of Louisiana and Florida emerge most effortlessly.  It’s not possible to express in words the joy I feel watching this process of which I am a catalyst, but it’s there in every piece I make.  Like the metal coating on an old fashioned recording tape, the metal captures the vibration of my joy and holds it for the next person to experience. “

Trish's newest form of expression is underwater photography.  "Living in the Florida Keys gives me the opportunity to free dive almost every day.  I take photos for my own pleasure.  Many friends and guests on my boat have encouraged me to offer my images for sale. The photographs take me back to that place of peace I experience in the water.  I believe that serenity can be experienced by anyone who sees my images.  " 

Trish’s work has been displayed at Barbella’s Gallery, Pensacola, Florida, Spirit Dance in Islamorada, Florida, and the permanent collection of former first lady Rosalyn Carter.  Her work can currently be seen at Island Arts Coop Gallery in Key West, Florida.

Trish lives on her sailboat , Namaste' , in Key West, Florida and enjoys sharing her love of the ocean with guests through Namaste' Sailing Charters.