R.W.  "Where did you learn to work in steel?"

P.M.  "I learned through taking automobile welding at a vocational training center. It’s actually very difficult to master cutting and welding. I took the class 8 times before I felt like I knew how to do it and what equipment I needed for my own workshop."

R.W.  "Were there other women in the classes?"

P.M.  "There was one other woman.  We hung out together.  It was an intimidating environment for sure. Not only the shop itself which was filled with incomprehensible machines of all different types--plasma cutters, acetylene torches, drill presses and mig welders, but the teacher and his assistant and the rest of the class were all men.  The teacher seemed obviously put out with my being there. It was hard to get his attention.  I don't think he thought I was serious."

R.W.  "What inspired you to keep going then?"

P.M.  "I was determined to get out of the house. I loved my baby deeply, but, when the baby needed something and my husband and I were both in the house a kind of vacuum would suck her to me.  It was as if he wasn’t there. A friend said I should take a course, but, I didn’t want to take just any course.  When the adult education catalog arrived in the mail--automobile welding jumped out at me.  Why? That’s a hard question.  The only thing I can think of is that many years ago I passed by a huge sculpture made out of painted steel in front of a building in Arlington.  I think it was of a woman running or something.  I loved it.   At that moment I thought "Someday I’d like to make something out of painted metal."  That’s it.  Anyway, when I saw the course listing, I jumped at the chance.  Not only did I get out of the house and have time to myself, my husband was forced to figure out how to be with the baby.  He did great and because of my insistence that he do it, they now have a beautiful relationship.  So we won all the way around.  I developed an art form and our child gained a good father."

R.W.  "What kinds of things did you learn in the class?"       

P.M.  "Exactly.  This is another mystery to me.  My fascination with Cezanne.  Don’t ask me where I got that. Through all of this I have gained a profound respect for the nature and power of creativity.  I learned to follow up on my ideas and not to question them.  Just see where they take me.  I became obsessed with Cezanne’s still lifes.  I hadn’t given him much notice before I needed to decide on a theme for the painting over that woman’s head.  I came across some of his paintings of still lifes in a book at home and it hit me.  If I can do a little self analysis here I think that this whole period of my life was and may still be related to the fruitfulness that comes from giving birth."

R.W.  "Is that where the title of the show comes from, ‘Women, Hips & Fruit?’"

P.M.  "Yes.  To me a woman’s strength lie in her hips.  The hips are the fulcrum between a woman's  thinking and feelings.  Perhaps that’s why women can do ten things at once.  Raise the children and run the corporation.  Large hips are not in vogue today, of course, but that’s a relatively recent phenomena. In the past women’s ability to produce a child was revered.  It now seems to be relegated to an afterthought."

R.W.  "Isn’t this counter feminist?"

P.M.  "No, to me this is the real feminist position.  I think that women have for too long now bought the idea that career is everything and have denied the benefits of being child bearers.  I believed that myself for years.  Now having a child I see that the depth of meaning that comes from producing life enhances everything, even my corporate self, if you will.  I think feminist organizations, corporations and countries should be run by women who have children!"

R.W.  "Some of your works in the show follow this theme directly in terms of women bearing fruit.  But isn’t there another theme or current with regard to your odalisque figures?"

P.M.  "Well, I really got into women lying down.  Maybe I just needed to relax.  I noticed that throughout art history many works were done of prone women.  The artist painted these works of their mistresses or for wealthy men of their mistresses.  The women were objects of desire.  I decided to make my women out of steel and change them from objects of desire to women pursuing solitude.  Solitude, that illusive, precious thing a woman needs to safeguard with a vengeance when she’s a mother."

R.W.  "There is a sense of women’s strength in these works."

P.M.  "Yes, their strength comes from cutting their hips and curves out of steel perhaps, but I’ve also painted them with fluid paint which, I think, or hope, gives the sense of women’s pliability."

R.W.  "Tell me about ‘Woman in the Garden.’  She reminds me of a nude by Cranach." 

P.M.  "Cranach was part of my research into the female odalisque.  As you know, Cranach was a 17th century German painter.  His odalisque, like mine, lies down in a garden-like setting, however, unlike mine he painted a city in the background and ..."

R.W.  "You left in the arrows."

P.M.  "Yes, but rather than giving the feeling that the woman is lying there waiting for a man to come back, my woman in the garden could be the archer herself.  My thought was to project her as self-contained and waiting for no one."

R.W.  "What is the wonderfully sensuous paint that you’ve used on the odalisques in the large gallery?"

P.M.  "It's a fiberglass coating that is typically used for things like tools and iron railings.  I discovered it's fine art properties and exploited them for this show."

R.W.  "Fiberglass is very dangerous to use, isn’t it?"

P.M.  "Yes, I wear lots of prophylactic gear.  Fiberglass is quite toxic during the application process.  Once dry it’s non-toxic.  But I love how it looks so much, I put up with all of the hassle of wearing the equipment.  Not only do the colors mix well and pool within each other in unique ways but when you build up the thickness of the paint it creates a sculptured texture."

R.W.  "It makes you want to touch it, if not caress it.

P.M.  "Hmmm."

R.W.  "What is the inspiration for ‘Woman with the Red Fan?’"    

P.M.  "Another old master painting, this time Ingres’ ‘Odalisque with Slave’.  In the original the woman is attended to by several slaves which I liberated and while my woman remains erotic she seems contemplative at the same time.  I, also, took out the original setting which suggested a harem."

R.W.  "I notice that many of your steel paintings have the frame incorporated into them but ‘Woman with the Red Fan’ is frameless as if she is suspended in air."

P.M.  "Although I liked the feeling of the positive and negative space that came from some of the other steel paintings being framed I decided to experiment by doing away with the frame.  I liked the idea of them floating on the wall.  You can see that in the ones that include a still life I did the same thing.  ‘Fruit with Tablecloth’ is also frameless. I just got into the apples and oranges as entities in themselves.  I wanted them to stand out so I magnified their size."  

R.W.  "Where to next, Phelan?"

"Second, my maternity series out of concrete and steel created on a monumental scale to be set outdoors.  These large figures celebrate the joy of motherhood and of being born.  Each has an exalted mother figure with a baby dancing in her womb.  In at least one of the works the baby figure is motorized."  

"The third and newest direction is creating painted steel sculptures based on children’s figure drawings. I’m fascinated with the drawings that children do in their early developmental stages.  They come up with things adults don’t think of because of acculturation.  The drawings are primitive but at the same time   evolve in consciousness.

R.W. "Thank you, Phelan."