Ailene Fields The Road to Wearable Art
Artistic Development
History
Ailene Fields (née Eileen Rubin in 1948 in Brooklyn, New York) graduated from Lehman College in New York City in 1973, majoring in English literature and Greek mythology. She began her career at EarthWorks pottery in New York City, but quickly realized that unadorned pottery was not for her. After a several years of experimenting and adorning her pottery with sculptural figures, and then creating pottery in which her sculptures were the pottery, she decided, in 1980, after seeing a book of noted sculptor Bruno Lucchesi's work, to study the human figure with him at The New School for Social Research (New York City). When he realized her talent and that she couldn’t help but put wings or claws or talons on her sculptures, Lucchesi sent Fields to Sculpture Center (New York City) to further her practical education as a sculptor. At Sculpture Center, she moved from clay to her current loves of both stone carving and sculpting for bronze casting.
History as a JewelryDesigner
Ten years ago, because of a knee injury, when Fields found herself unable to stand for the long periods of time necessary to do larger pieces and to carve stone sculptures full time, she began to translate her love of mythology and nature into unique pieces of sculptural jewelry. Using a lost wax technique, she incorporates the rhythms of life into gold, silver or bronze backgrounds that capture the essence of her pieces’ focal points, The magic of her visual storytelling is unveiled, revealing as much meaning in her sculptural jewelry as she does in her stone and bronze sculptures, which are included in collections worldwide.
Exhibition History
Fields' first one-person exhibition, all bronze sculptures of Greek mythological figures, in 1987 at the Lavaggi Gallery (New York City) set the tone for her future work. In the next few years she expanded her repertoire to include intricate stone and bronze sculptures that ventured into the realms of fairy tales, animals (both real and mythical, especially dragons) and flowers. Since that time, her work has been continually exhibited in American museums and art galleries. She has had solo museum exhibitions --- twice at the Bergen Museum of Art & Science (Paramus, New Jersey) and once at The Appleton Museum of Art (Ocala, Florida). Solo gallery exhibitions include CFM Gallery (NYC) (multiple shows), Roslyn Sailor Fine Arts (Margate, NJ) (multiple shows), Drew Cryst Gallery (Sparta, NJ), Broadhurst Gallery (Pinehurst, NC), Southern Vermont Art Center (Manchester, VT), Pendragon Gallery (Annapolis, MD), White Lights Gallery (Nyack, NY), Barbara Debetz Gallery (NYC, NY), Lavaggi Gallery (NYC, NY), and Six Summit Gallery, (Ivoryton, CT). In addition, she also has had a standing exhibition of her mythological bronzes in the Mark Hotel (NYC, NY) and, most recently, a two year standing exhibition of herSacred Spaces stone sculptures at The Leo House (NYC, NY)She has also been represented in well over 25 group exhibitions across the United States.She is currently represented by both CFM Gallery and Six Summit Gallery.
Teaching History
Her history over the years has been that after studying a medium, she became a valued teacher. For her final few years at EarthWorks, she taught sculptural pottery, Subsequently, after a her time as a student at Sculpture Center, she taught their children’s sculpture classes and eventually moved up to teaching stone carving (for adults) at both Sculpture Center and The Educational Alliance (NYC). Currently Fields teaches stone carving at The Compleat Sculptor in New York City,
