Meet Chair Linda Fleming

When I was two years old my grandfather drew pictures for me, and I was transfixed by the magic of watching these images appear. I always wanted to be an artist and was so serious that my parents had my uncle talk to me when I was six to tell me it wasn't a viable vocation. (My uncle had tried to live by his art during the Great Depression and fate was not on his side.)

I am still surprised my parents took me seriously enough to have him try to dissuade me. As a child I drew with chalk on the sidewalks as if through pictures I could possess the things I could not have in real life, such as a pony. I studied painting and drawing in college, but as time passed, making pictures of things didn't seem as important as the conjuring that making work could trigger.

I began working with real material in actual space. Instead of depicting reality, I wanted to physically build it. Over many years of making, I find myself working into and out of ideas I’ve always held. For my large works I always make models and view these laborious hand-cut paper and wood structures as three-dimensional drawings.

I work to create a place from which to observe the interior self and the exterior world. My large structures start with drawing, yet employ digital technology, laser cutters, and often large cranes for construction and installation. These works are instruments and shelters and they have evolved into gaseous clouds from the dense enclosures of my earlier sculpture.

Contemporary sculpture spans the breadth of making from enormous installations comprising light, sound, and space to small intricately made objects. It can be depictive or abstract, and like all art it tells a story. What distinguishes sculpture is the story unfolds in physical space and time.

About CCA's Sculpture Program

As a program, we strive to create the space for each student to find his or her own ideas and open the door to all the possible approaches of realizing these ideas. Because sculpture is one of the remarkably few programs that does not specify a material in its name, we are free to employ whatever seems appropriate.

This freedom allows us to explore multiple traditions of making as well as multiple technical skills. We believe that great work combines probing ideas, technical skill, and intense research. These three components are integral to every course level, from Sculpture 1 through Senior Project.

Bay Area Community

The Bay Area has a rich tradition of conceptual art and multidisciplinary approaches, and the Sculpture Program at CCA is uniquely positioned to be at the center of the critical dialogue addressing the role of physicality in the conjuring of ideas.

Faculty

With a nationally and internationally renowned faculty whose works comprise a broad spectrum of contemporary issues, we work to give students the tools to critically construct their own place in the world.