Martin Puryear

The fire was followed by a period of grieving and then by an incredible lightness, freedom, and mobility.

— Martin Puryear

I think of moving as a kind of saving grace.

— Martin Puryear

I’m interested in vernacular cultures, where people lived a little closer to the source of materials and the making of objects for…

— Martin Puryear

At a certain point, I just put the building and the art impulse together. I decided that building was a legitimate way…

— Martin Puryear

The site I landed on feels much more isolated than it really is; it's almost magical. Within its limited radius, there was…

— Martin Puryear

There remains this belief that the work itself can have an identity that can speak, whether it's through beauty, or through ugliness,…

— Martin Puryear

I was never interested in making cool, distilled, pure objects.

— Martin Puryear

I realized it wasn't necessary to work in the traditional methods of carving and casting.

— Martin Puryear

I felt it was part of the spirit of the whole program to do more than simply make an object.

— Martin Puryear

The most precise work is generally done by hand, with hand tools. Some people rely on machines for their precision, and my…

— Martin Puryear

There is the potential for much more spontaneity with prints than there is with the sculpture, which tends to be very slow,…

— Martin Puryear

The work is flowing from an inner knowing of how things really are.

— Martin Puryear

When I went to Africa I think that was when I really found a way to deal with what I had recently…

— Martin Puryear

Although idea and form are ultimately paramount in my work, so too are chance, accident, and rawness.

— Martin Puryear