Agid's feelings must emanate from
her work for her to consider it a success.
"You can have all the technique in
the world, but if a piece isn't alive' and it
doesn't breathe then it says nothing"
says the artist. "It's got
to say something."
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Agid's feelings must emanate from her work for her to consider it a success. "You can have all the technique in the world, but if a piece isn't alive' and it doesn't breathe then it says nothing" says the artist. "It's got to say something."
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Lucy Agid loves people, cares deeply about people, exudes an earnest concern for the soul of mankind. In turn, she celebrates the collective human spirit in her artwork. While one sculpture reflects a pensive introspection, another bursts with exuberant joie de vivre. As one New York City gallery owner observes, "She captures the turmoil, the hardship, the grace and beauty that life offers us all. She's a phenomenal sculptor." Old World Values Born and raised in San Pedro, Calif., she can't remember a time when she didn't sculpt or draw. As a schoolgirl, drawing and painting were outlets for her creativity, but even as a young artist, she preferred working the solid form, especially with clay. When one of her high school teachers went to speak to her parents about her talent, the teacher recommended they send her to art school. "My father didn't believe you could make a living from art," recalls Agid, adding that he had her take a job at the fish canneries in San Pedro, where she worked from age 16 to 24. My Parents were from the old country - Yugoslavia," she says, noting that they had lived on the island of Vis, situated in the cobalt blue Adriatic Sea about 100 miles northwest of Dubrovnik. "I was raised in the old-fashioned way. They disciplined me to respect people. "I'm an American; I'm part of the human race. I'm Yugoslav, a little French, a little Russian. There's no such thing as a pure race, and that's what makes the creativity among people," she says. It's this mix of races, this blend of humanity, that inform her artwork. While she packed tuna and sardines, she studied her coworkers intently. "We had Italian, Portuguese, Yugoslavs, Mexican, Japanese, blacks, Swedes. I'd sit and have lunch with people from different, countries. It was a melting pot and we had no trouble. I learned to get along with all of them. That's why I sculpt people."