Gabrielle Trom, Chesterwood Resident

Gabrielle Trom is currently working at Daniel Chester French’s studio, Chesterwood.

Her focus is a piece that has been years in the making – the Gorgons, which consists of three sides.  Trom describes them as follows:

The first side is the “beautiful” side that is Medusa. It represents the mask we all wear (in public/on social media/even in casual environments). It represents the calm surface, but if you walk around the sculpture and see the other faces you will come to recognize the true and mortal nature of the mask.

The second side, Euryale, represents fear. The hair that flows from the face of Medusa wraps around and appears almost as snakes on this side. The fear it represents is the sort of fear that is debilitating and finds its source in grief—grief from loss: loss of loved ones, loss of relationships or friendships, loss of faith in a religion or loss of faith in oneself.

The third face, Stheno, is a product of the first two. This face is one of cynicism, spite, frustration, anger, and loss of faith in humanity.

At this moment in our history, these feelings are simmering up to the surface as a result of the loneliness that we have experienced from the pandemic and a paralyzing sense of powerlessness in the face of a seeming indefinite uncertainty.