Nora Long
Staff Writer
Alice Aycock was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, she received a B.A. from Douglas College and an M.A. from Hunter College. She has lived in New York City since 1968. Alice Aycock was this year’s Conrad Nelson speaker, which took place on Wednesday, September 20th in Lancaster City at the Ware Center.
Aycock’s early works as well as her works in overall focus around reshaping the earth. Whether she is having people experience earth in different ways, feel their emotions, or opposing nature. I say opposing nature, because she has created sculptures which can withstand environmental hazards; hence, her sculpture down in Florida which survived Hurricane Irma, and as she said at the lecture, “much to the disapproval of the community that her sculpture resides.”
Aycock’s sculptures are very geometric, industrial, and large, that she has had to collaborate alongside engineers to help her build these pieces. Some people would think that she has little control in her sculptures because of this, but in contrary, she plays a dominant role in this. She okays every single design to her liking, so that her art looks how she wants it. Once it is completed, the engineering team gets to work sculpting it to her design. Some of these pieces revolve around wind patterns, circular force, energy, and nature. Her art is meant to make you feel something, it is meant to make you reflect on your innermost feelings, and to be able to make you truly feel something. She says, “She does not make art to just make money, but she makes art to commemorate someone who may be forgotten, or who maybe felt like a nobody.”