Moving To and Fro
March 26, 2025
Janice Redman and Elizabeth Bradfield navigate a creative partnership
in sculpture and poetry
Sculptor Janice Redman, a former Visual Arts Fellow (1992-1992, 1993-1994), and current Visual Arts Committee member, collaborates with poet and Summer Program faculty member Elizabeth Bradfield. Together they engage in a creative dialogue that merges sculpture and poetry in a process they describe as “parallel play.”
Janice Redman, a sculptor, and Elizabeth Bradfield, a poet, are neighbors in North Truro who have worked together for the past 15 years. “She sits in this chair and works on her laptop,” says Redman, gesturing to an armchair in her studio. “I give her a little sheepskin rug in the winter and a pair of slippers I got at Mass Appeal.”
They start off by chatting for a few minutes. Then they set an alarm for 30 or 40 minutes and get to work. “When the alarm goes off, we get up, stretch for a couple of minutes, maybe get some water,” says Redman. They repeat the pattern for three or four hours, sometimes for a whole workday, and then go for a swim or a walk. “We swim together more in the winter than in the summer,” says Bradfield.
Bradfield often reads aloud to Redman poems she’s writing. “Putting the words out there in the room and being aware of another body receiving them changes the way I hear them,” she says. “It feels like a promise to the poem. If I voice it, it’s becoming something real, instead of just hiding in the notebook.”
– Abraham Storer
To read the full article in the Provincetown Independent, visit here.
