SOM#117, Leonda F. Finke, The Prodical Son, 1988

From the collection of John Birks

Numbers Issued: ?

FROM THE ARTIST

My sculpture and drawing has been involved predominantly with the human body -- particularly female. It is here that I find a vocabulary of forms -- constantly changing. I try to use them to express a feeling or condition; to say how it feels to be alive. Also I hope the shapes I use have an abstract quality. Typical of my work, whether three dimensional or in relief, is the rough surface. This not applied but rather grows from the inside out as the forms develop.

Though I've done many bronze reliefs -- a delightful cross between drawing and sculpture, only recently have I begun to explore the art of the medal. The Prodigal need not relate only to the son. Our deepest life experiences are not necessarily gender oriented. I was a prodigal daughter in my youthful rebellion and struggle for independence. Today I also appreciate the other side of the relationship as a parent of adult children who fled and returned -- each in a different way. This human ebb and flow seems as natural and inevitable as the tides; its pain and joy can mean growth for all of us.

The medal was fascinating to work on -- to try to unite the form and content was a challenge. The flowers, peonies -- are a symbol of filial piety. They seemed not only appropriate but promised me a change of pace. I saved them to work on at the end as a welcome break from building six human figures. But as always, I kept returning to the figures, they held my deepest concern and pleasure. -- Leonda F. Finke, 1988

The Sculpture of LEONDA F. FINKE, by JOSEPH VEACH NOBLE, Executive Director of The Society of Medalists

Here is a woman who has made her reputation sculpting women. Her bronzes of women are in museums from the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington to the Museum of Foreign Art in Sofia, Bulgaria. In the past several years her work has been mainly over life size figures -- commissions for both public and private outdoor sites. Recently she has started to work on art medals and finds the contrast between the very large and the very small to be new and stimulating.

In this medal, "The Prodical Son", the woman plays a pivotal role balancing the relationship between the father and their prodigal son. Notice how the inner strength of these three figures interact, and how forcefully their emotions are expressed. Leonda Finke's shapes are reduced to basics, she does not burden her figures with details, and yet in their simplified form they speak to us clearly from the medal. The large empty space created when the son leaves his parents movingly tells of breaking away and loneliness. On the reverse the reuniting of the family in love is both tender and possessing of great strength. Rarely has such poignant emotions been conveyed successfully in a medal.

Her work has won many well deserved prizes including those of the National Association of Women Artists, National Academy of Design and the National Sculpture Society. Medals of hers have been in the Fédération Internationale de la Médaille biennial exhibitions in Stockholm, Sweden in 1985 and Colorado Springs, U.S.A. in 1987.