My representational practice explores empathy and imagination as pathways to spiritual development. By sculpting portraits of specific individuals at a scale close to that of a living human body, I facilitate encounters wherein emotional content may pass from my objects to my viewers. My goal is to invite viewers into a space of curiosity and contemplation. In his text The Power of Images, Studies in the History and Theory of Response, David Freedberg claims that only through intimate encounters with particular people can we become capable of extending our empathy to humanity on a broader scale. My work reflects this opening up from the specific to the universal, for in addition to carefully observed portrait sculptures, I sculpt less specific, invented bodies that depict people in states of surrender and acceptance. 

Sophie Gibson (b. 1993) is currently pursuing her MFA in Ceramic Art at Alfred University’s New York State College of Ceramics. In 2017 she graduated from the Brown | RISD Dual Degree Program with a B.F.A. in Illustration and a B.A. in History. For the past seven years she has lived and worked as an educator in Charlottesville, VA, where she has shown work locally at the Bridge PAI, Mcguffey Art Center, Studio IX, Second Street Gallery, Visible Records, and Chroma Projects.