The Talented Sculptor-Painter

Executive Global: What would you say about the therapeutic and healing impact that art can have, and why it is so critically important for us to own in the world today?

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Fay Wood: Early in my career, I was not interested in stories I’d heard about therapeutic properties of art..However, after 58 years of a very good marriage, my husband died, I was left alone and it was the beginning of the pandemic. For more than a year I was unable to do anything productive - no art, no social life, numb. Until someone sent me a music video…and a face filled the screen; a beautiful, sculptural head and he began to sing a version of a song from my early life that I loved, (The Sound of Silence) but this guy was ANGRY. Apparently this was what I desperately needed. It was the lead singer with DISTURBED, a heavy metal band that I had never heard. It seemed to want me to move, do something! So I chose another song called ‘What are you waiting for’. And since that day, I have not stopped making art. I began the series ‘Three Ringed Pandemic Circus’ and have completed seven lovely small sculptures based on the idea. Do I think Art can heal? It is keeping me alive every day!
 

EG: Virginia Woolf stated to ‘arrange whatever pieces come your way.’ How does this approach shape your creative output as an artist using found objects?

FW: The comment by Virginia Woolf - ‘arrange whatever pieces come your way’ seemed to me to describe what I had begun to do when I made Found Object Sculpture. The more I used the objects, the choices I could make became wider, less selective and I was able to forget what the origins of the object were and focus on the merits of the piece to the sculpture I was creating.
 

EG: How does the creative process differ when painting with that of sculpture, and how would you compare and contrast the techniques across the disciplines?

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FW: Over the years, my focus has been primarily on Sculpture. The combining of parts lending colour, texture, form, negative space, etc. in the round is a different kind of thinking than painting. Not better, just different. I have become attracted to the way things move in the round, rather than the flat surface of a canvas. However, more often than not I will have time on my hands while I wait to collect the parts I may need for a particular sculpture that I may be working on, so I begin to work in other mediums.
 

First, I painted on canvas and with a much looser technique - most of the time I have music in the background. Then I began to experiment with collage and reverse oil painting on glass (my mother repaired and replaced antique glass using this method- I occasionally helped her). Over time, I developed portfolios in each technique, each requiring a different way of managing the materials. Reverse Painting is the most challenging; preparing the glass first, and attempting to visualise the finished look before starting. Collage is a giant puzzle, probably the most relaxing and fun. I work with a collection of vintage papers from my mother’s studio to start, adding as I go. And Drawing, basic in all the work I do, I have bits of paper everywhere with ideas sketched on them!

EG: You also won the Proskauer Prize for sculpture. To what extent can you attribute your award-winning talents to the transition of your artistic practice after meeting sculptor Jasmine Saunders, and who would you say are your greatest artistic influences?

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FW: Before I met Jasmine Saunders and joined her life drawing group in her studio, I was a  young wife with two very young children and a large house, and needed something for myself alone - the making of art. With the total support of my husband, who has always understood my commitment to the work I loved, I made the time I needed to grow my talent. And Jasmine encouraged me to try my hand at sculpture; first direct carving, and, after we had moved to California- to found objects.
 

Greatest  artistic influences? There are so many - I admire every woman who has the talent and determination to pursue a life of art where her work is still, in 2026, referred to as “women’s art” and so not worth the same respect as that done by a man. That being said, there are wonderful artists everywhere I turn who have influenced me, but in the end- I tend to look inward for my inspiration. I live very alone in my mind when I am working and love it this way.

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EG: What are the most significant things that you learned studying at the Massachusetts College of Art, which later influenced your successful career?
 

FW: The things I learned at Massachusetts College of Art were; that there were many students as good or better than I. That with work, I could learn and compete, and that I loved doing it. But the best of all were the instructors, who for the most part- were inspiring and full of ideas to share.

EG: Your works have an extensive exhibition history around the world, displaying at venues like the Biennale Internazionale Dell’Arte Contemporanea, National Sculpture Society, New York Museum of Arts and Design and Salmagundi Club New York. Talk to us about your original oil paintings and how your talented mother helped you to hone your craft in earlier years? 

FW: My early paintings were mostly realist work, occasionally abstract. For a number of years my husband, children and I moved around the country (USA) because of my husband’s career, but at one point we were able to live for a few years closer to our families, in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. There, I could assist my mother with her work of restoring and replacing damaged or broken antique reverse oil paintings on glass. This is a fascinating technique that she taught me so when she got overwhelmed with orders, I could ease the burden. However, she was a purist, and would get annoyed when I would experiment with abstraction using the technique. But NEVER on a replacement! Later, when we stopped moving so much and I had a permanent studio, I began to use the method in earnest, and found I could create small paintings that had beautiful colour on the glass, producing small jewels of paintings. To see my work, I have recently been showing at both ART EXPO - MIAMI and ART EXPO - NYC.

EG: Your body of work across mediums is extraordinary! What are the best ways for wealthy art patrons, collectors and investors to add your works to their collection?

FW: Probably the best way for people interested in collecting my work is to look at my website - www.FayWoodStudio.com. see work that may interest them and email me at info@faywoodstudio.com. Then we could begin a conversation about their interests and work from there. I also have work at Artrepreneur.com, Art & Objects magazine Marketplace, and recently I have become represented by Xanadu Gallery’s Art Boost in Arizona. All these are online. You can telephone me at (336) 370 6157 in North Carolina, USA. I will also show my work by appointment. I will say that seeing the actual work can make a difference - I received a call from a potential buyer who saw one of my sculptures online and found it perfect for her dining room. She expected the work to be about table size - very disappointed when I told her it was over four feet tall!   EG