Tag Archives: female artist

Beth Cavener Stichter

written by:Desere’ Carlson

*A Modest Proposal,* 2006 clay/cloth, 8.5 x 15 x 11 in.

Education

Beth Cavener is a full-time studio sculptural artist based in Montana who makes her large life-like animal pieces out of clay. She has a BA in sculpture from Haverford College and an MFA in ceramics from Ohio State. She was awarded the artist trust fellowship in 2009. She fondly remembers her first career aspirations to become a scientist like her father and although she did not continue on that path she carries with her her dads inquisitive thought process. It’s his teachings to ask more direct questions that prompts her to understand deeper meanings behind human behavior. She has created a professional studio space or “think tank” called Studio 740 where emerging artists can apply for a space for a period of time. The studio allows artists to connect collaboratively, bounce ideas off one another, and just be able to explore the creative process among other creatives all while adding to their body of work.

*Premonition*, 1999 stoneware, 12 x15 x10 in.

Inspiration

“The sculptures i create focus on human psychology, stripped of context and rationalization, and articulated through animal and human forms. On the surface,these figures are simply feral and domestic individuals suspended in a moment of tension. Beneath the surface they embody the impacts of aggression, territorial desires, isolation, and pack mentality.”

Beth’s body of work has intensely Baroque sculptural roots that draw the viewer into the drama of the sculpture. The sweeping motions of the fur on her animals offers a modern twist of a whimsical fairytale her sculptures seemed to have jumped out of. Her attention to detail captures the intense emotional state of the creatures she sculpts making them appear human in their emotional vulnerability. Cavener is careful in her incorporation of human expression and gesture as well as sometimes incorporating human genitalia, aiming to blur the lines between human and animal behavior. Her pieces often deal with those uncomfortable feelings we all experience such a anger, fear, helplessness etc. portraying them through animal bodies allowing the viewer to take on these otherwise touchy subjects as if they are at the base of their carnal roots.

“I rely on animal body language in my work as a metaphor for these underlying patterns, transforming the animal subjects into human psychological portraits.”

*Tangled Up in You,* 2014 stoneware/ink/paint/rope, 65 x 42 x 24 in.

Process

To make one of these sculptures, Cavener first builds a solid form on armatures. She then cuts the sculpture into sections; hollowing out each section as she goes. She them combines the smaller cut sections back together- leaving them in larger sections (such as a full leg) and then fires them in the kiln. Following the firing of the larger reassembled pieces, she assembles the sculpture in its entirety. After refining details, painting solid washes or elaborate details on the figures may be the finishing touches she adds to a piece.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=2ahUKEwjBwsCVsoHpAhWRmuAKHR3mDnoQtwIwAHoECAYQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DIXPSXKdlA_U&usg=AOvVaw13FPtaqDLxLw2zjc3gf8SE

*The Question that Devours*, 2012 stoneware/paint, 64 x 35 x 25 in

Jenny Holzer – By Natasha Kam

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Jenny Holzer is an American Conceptual Artist, born in 1950, and most commonly known for her text-based works. These works are usually placed in large public spaces using a variety of media; including: large-scale projections, LED displays, posters, and t-shirts. Holzer uses her art as a form of communication, concealment, and control. “I used language because I wanted to offer content that people — not necessarily art people — could understand.”

Holzer was born in Gallipolis, OH on July 29, 1950. Her various formal education comes from many different colleges such as Duke University, University of Chicago, Ohio University, and Rhode Island School of Design. But she received her BFA from the University of Ohio in 1972. Jenny moved to Manhattan in 1976 where she first began her work with language and public art alongside the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program.

Holzer’s most famous work titled “Truisms” (1977-79), first appearing as anonymous, one-liner broadcasts around Manhattan. For this work she printed these words of art as black italic script on white paper, and wheat-pasted to buildings, walls, and fences. Later, in 1981 Holzer created her “Living” series where she now printed on aluminum and bronze plaques, addressing daily life and everything that comes with it. Then after taking a break from the art world she came out with her “Lustmord” series in 1993, which translates to Sex Murder in German. This series heavily focuses on her response and stories of the methodical rape and murder of women. “Lustmord” was made to bring attention to these unthinkable acts and tells of sex crimes and take place from the perspective of the victim, the observer, and perpetrator’s point of view.

Jenny Holzer’s work primarily talks of violence, war, oppression, power, sexuality, feminism, and death. With her work, her main focus is to ” enlighten, bringing to light something thought in silence and meant to remain hidden.”

Marela Zacarías – Tiffany

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Post By Tiffany Brady

Marela Zacarías is an artist from Mexico City, Mexico, specializing in the merging of sculpture and paint in a rather flowing way. Zacarías’s work embodies the challenge of making a sculpture fold and fall in the same way fabric may, while also filling her pallets full of color and vibrancy. Along with a large amount of pigment Zacarías uses, she also fills her winding sculptures with geometric shapes and designs.

According to Zacarías’s profile written on Art21, most of her works are, “built from window screens, joint compound, and polymer before being painted in bold, geometric, abstract patterns.”

As you would assume, Zacarías’s process for making these intricately wound pieces is “labor- and research-intensive,” as claimed on her own artist site. Most of her pieces are even designed for the exhibit she is working for at the time.

Art21 said, “Zacarías’s works are often inspired by the sites for which they are planned, such as Works Progress Administration murals in the Brooklyn Museum, Mayan textile colors for an installation in Mexico, and a map of Brooklyn for a new hotel in the borough.”

Not only has Zacarías taken part in numerous exhibitions, but she has also held solo exhibits and even commissioned large-scale permanent pieces for “Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Facebook, the William Vale in Brooklyn, and the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, Mexico,” according to her site.

The Brooklyn Paper also looked into these lively sculptures, saying, “Like much of Zacarias’s work, the sculptures are meant to interact with the architecture of a specific communal space — the pieces, resembling huge, living blankets, seem to have just finished crawling the walls and balconies of the museum’s cavernous entrance lobby.”

Zacarías’s way of breathing life into her sculptures translates with every twist and turn of the surprisingly harden sculptures she manifests.