March- April 2018
“The Bearded Bogwallop,” “The Wichfinger Whatsit,” and “The Crone of Early Spring” are some of the featured faeries and other mythical characters from the whimsical mind of sculptor Rhonda Whitledge. For Whitedge, creativity is life. “I experience an almost primordial connection when I take a shapeless lump of material in my hands and through manipulation, create something new, the likes of which may never have been seen before.”
From her earliest memories, Whitledge could never pass by any malleable substance without trying to sculpt something, i.e., in clay, snow, mud, paper, wax, mashed potatoes, even cardboard. The media she has worked in over the years were dictated by circumstance and budget. After exploring through creating in bread dough, soft sculpture, ceramic clay, and bronze, polymer clay has become her mainstay for sculpting. Whitledge works mostly in Cernit, a temperamental, but durable, polymer clay that allows her to achieve a fine level of detail.
