Wendy S. Rolfe:
More than anything, I like to paint about prayer. Just the idea of being one with God and trying to understand and have perspective on why we're here, where we're going, and how our life can be useful, instead of useless.

I don't sell as often as some of my friends who are more marketable. It's slower. But at the same time, though, the freedom of spirit, and just constantly folding yourself into something new and going with it—there's nothing more alive than that. And it has its own existence. The more personal my pieces become, the more difficult it is for me to go back. Because I used to do strictly commission pieces and pieces for the market. And I find that very difficult to do. I can't go back that way. So, each piece that, I guess, allows me to be personal is very fulfilling for me.

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Crit Streed :
My daughter Somer was born in 1980. And then in 1987, my daughter was killed in a home accident. So that's been a devastating part of my life. Everything that I have experienced—travel, life experiences, what I observe—I think all of those things become integral parts of my art-making, because I truly think my art-making simply comes through me. And since Somer was the absolute thing in my life, I think her life and that loss has certainly shaped my work. It has never been very light-hearted work. But I think a lot of my work does have an edge to it that probes at some very large unanswerable question.

Maureen A. Seamonds:
I think of my sculptures as very gestural, and they're figurative in an abstract kind of way. And I think of them as figures kind of in the context of landscape. I don't really want it to look like someone, but I want it to feel like someone. I kind of think of it as having the breath of life, rather than the actual physical reality of a live creature.

When I had Nick, who's my youngest one, who has cerebral palsy—it's just an enormous, huge experience. And so I knew that I needed to be able to communicate that in my work. I had a student from Britain a few years ago that came to my studio, and she asked if Nick influenced my work. And I said, "You know, I've really struggled with that. I don't know. I don't know what that looks like." She looks at me with just this kind of stunned look—she said, "Well, he's in your work. It's like that breath you were talking about." And I thought, "Oh, wow." It was very moving for me to have her say that.