Solitary end to sculptor's intensely private life

[Merlion]

The world is so big. It is often through death that we know of a sculptor that is worth getting to know. This is the sad ending to the life of an accomplished sculptor from Australia. And this seems to be the extreme case of a sculptor working alone.

Solitary end to sculptor's intensely private life (http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts/solitary-end-to-sculptors-intensely-private-life/2006/07/12/1152637740039.html)

As one of the country's hardest-working artists, Bronwyn Oliver spent more time in her Haberfield studio than anywhere else.

It is where the 47-year-old sculptor was found dead on Tuesday, weeks before she was to hold her 11th solo exhibition at the Roslyn Oxley9 gallery. ...

Oliver's distinctive organic metal sculptures, often inspired by nature, are highly sought after. Her most famous works include Magnolia and Palm, both of which sit in the Botanic Gardens. The Hilton Hotel commissioned the $350,000 work Vine, a 380-kilogram aluminium creation that stretches 16.5 metres. It is among the longest sculptures in the country and the biggest single piece Oliver created.

Friends yesterday remembered Oliver as an intensely private person with a strict work ethic broken only for exercise and meals. ....

Her style, Oxley said, reflected the artist's personality. "She'll certainly go down as a very significant artist. She had her own language: beautiful, refined forms with intricate, sometimes aggressive, sometimes soft structures within the forms," she said. "The detail sort of summed Bronwyn up." ....

An art market analyst, Michael Reid, said the sudden death of Oliver, who took her own life, was a tragedy. "Her pared back aesthetic was greatly appreciated. I expect her to go down as one of the greatest Australian artists of the decade," he said.

[MountainSong]

How terribly sad. Though I respect her right to make her own choices it is always difficult to hear of a fellow artists who has chose to check out. It reminds me yet again to consider that working in solitary may not be a good idea.

[Landseer]

Reading her bio story I could see signs of a few problems- she basically seemed to do little more than work most of the time, sleep a little and eat all in solitude and withthis one line alone it says a lot about what was happening;

intensely private person with a strict work ethic broken only for exercise and meals.

--
I think they confused "Strict work ethic" with a compulsive/obsessive disorder. I have seen people like this who HAVE to be busy working all the time or they get jittery anxious and depressed, in fact I work with someone like this and he is on all kinds of meds, he comes to work hours before everyone else, he takes only 15 minutes for lunch if he takes it at all, he goes home and does work in the shop and often comes back to use some machine or other. Sat, Sun, basically the same.

"Intensely private" also says a lot to me. The tragic thing is no one saw this coming and everyone missed the clues of what was probably inevitable.

[sculptor]

who among us has not considered suicide?

and when it's done
i invariably wonder
why

the why that would be the trigger that would make taking that next and last step seem apropos

is there any among us who would not be missed/

which brings up-------------2 weeks to live

[Landseer]

who among us has not considered suicide?

and when it's done i invariably wonder why

the why that would be the trigger that would make taking that next and last step seem apropos
No doubt most people, but most of them are still alive after maybe a tragic situational event- loss of a job, house fire kills your parents, your girl leaves you etc, these are often resolved quickly.
When you mix in things like long term clinical depression, maybe some bi-polar, manic or other personality disorders, or severe health issues along with financial or other problems- that become a serious witches' brew waiting to boil over, and sometimes it can take very little for it to boil over.

I'm not saying she had any of those issues, but from the description in the article it sounds likely she had a couple of them, maybe she was on medication or maybe not.
if she was on medication of some kind a lot of those drugs have side effects, and one was in the news lately about it's causing delusion and increased suicidal tendencies, so sometimes the medications bring in their own witches' brew of nasty or bizarre side effects.

Truly suicidal people usually just do it suddenly and unexpectedly, they don't usually tell people first as doing so is a cry for help, a person who is suicidal often doesnt want to be stopped and they are usually successful and the ones who wind up in the newspapers.

[Merlion]

Here is a much better write-up (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19780165-16947,00.html) on Bronwyn Oliver, the acclaimed Australian sculptor who died a few days ago.

This write-up focuses on her as an accomplished artist, her inspiring artworks, and her single-minded devotion. It avoids the distracting mention of how she died. Some excerpts below.

"Almost all of her sculptures are made from patinated copper and bronze, and the forms are mostly inspired by those found in nature: spirals, coils, twisting links, trumpet shapes and intricate webbing. Many artists claim to be inspired by nature, of course, but Oliver was unique in several ways. She was deep inside her medium and its various possibilities. Her technical prowess and attention to detail were extraordinary. And she deftly avoided the cliches and kitsch that so often cling to artists who lightly abstract natural forms.

As well as having a bold, classical symmetry, her sculptures have a private feeling about them, as of something freshly observed on a solitary walk. Often characterised as extremely delicate, they are, in fact, like most of nature's successful forms, surprisingly sturdy. She was interested in the interplay of tuberous shapes and crisp outer forms on the one hand and fine, hair-like tracery or delicate inner forms on the other. The human and emotional correlations are obvious."

[MountainSong]

I’ve always considered suicide ‘Option S’. Most times when life isn’t working out one runs through the options to try and get things solved, when option A doesn’t work one moves to B, then C and D, continuing to try to absolve things and get some peace and happiness back again so that life can be enjoyable or at least bearable.
When teenagers commits suicide, I think they skipped most of the options due to lack of wisdom and hormonal overdrive, but when the person is over thirty years old and chooses to end their life there’s a good chance they’ve carefully weighted the other options and tried a whole lot of them before arriving at Option S.
So I have to respect the decision whether I understand the reasons or not. I just feel bad for the people left behind though; it’s terribly painful for them. She also leaves behind a legacy of art which Australia can be proud of. The art will live on and perhaps even her through it.

[Araich]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts/parting-gestures-from-a-rare-talent/2006/08/08/1154802890209.html