The Book of Knowledge: Sculptors of Canada

(our wellhouse)

      Something I notice in the sculptures in Canada are the figures. They are posed very naturally, not at all figuratively. As you walk by, you'd expect them to start moving, continuing to do what they are frozen doing. In Le Defricheur, by Alfred Laliberte, there's a mother comforting her baby, and it's done in such very realistic manner. If she came alive she would start rocking, and she would be talking to him. Her arms holding the baby close. She is watching him, and he cries. The Canadians were able to portray feeling and emotion in their sculptures. Grief, by Frances Loring, is another that depicts emotion. As the name foreshadows, the subject is stricken with grief. The way her head covering and dress are draped gives the allusion of tears falling, or she is weeping.