Droplets I and II
Jane VALENTINE
Australia born 1972
Dropets I and II 2011
Marble
Born in Sydney, Jane Valentine trained l TAFE and later at the Sydney College of the Arts before travelling to Italy on a scholarship to further her studies in Florence and Pietrasanta, the Tuscan town whose marble quarries, like those in nearby Carrara, were made famous by Michelangelo’s patronage in the early 16th century. Before returning to Australia, Valentine spent seven years in Pietrasanta developing her stone-carving skills and working with resident artisans in the marble workshops for which the town is renowned. She still spends a part of each year in Pietrasanta as well as in studios in China and Egypt.
These classically simple forms are carved in arabescato marble whose pronounced silvery-grey veins resemble arabesque markings and distinguish it from the more uniformly white statuario marble used by Michelangelo.
Of her sculpture, Valentine notes that ‘part of my artistic practice tries to get to the essence of things and that’s often a pure, fragile, feminine essence!