Up The Gravel Path Arrowmont’s Artists-in-Residence
Cover Image Sense of Place by Stephanie Wilhelm Catalogue Background Image Posturing II by Alyssa Coffin Up the Gravel Path: Arromont’s Artist-in-Residence Š Slocumb Galleries and Participating Artists, 2018 | All rights reserved Images and artist statements courtesy of the Artists and representatives. | Gallery exhibition images taken by Slocumb Galleries staff. All images and work are copyright property of the Artists. | Catalogue design by Amanda Kilhenny. ETSU is an AA/EEO employer. ETSU-CAS-0054-18 50
Up The Gravel Path: Arrowmont’s Artists-in-Residence Curated by Lindsay Rogers
Artists and Panelists: Sasha Baskin Alyssa Coffin Everett Hoffman Stephanie Wilhelm Kari Woolsey
September 24 to October 19, 2018, Slocumb Galleries Panel & Reception during TN Craft Week: October 9 reception at 5 p.m., panel at 6 p.m., Ball Hall Auditorium Guests of Honor: Bill May, Executive Director, Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts Krishna Adams, Director of Visual Arts, Craft & Media, TN Arts Commission
Arrowmont Artists-in-Residence “Exhibitions provide opportunities for artists to share their work with a wide audience and give viewers an opportunity to better appreciate the perspectives and sensibilities that inform artists’ work. This is especially important for emerging artists, and we are proud of the work of Arrowmont’s Artists-In-Residence and appreciate our colleagues at ETSU for mounting this exhibition.” - Bill May, Executive Director Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts The Arrowmont Artists-in-Residence Program was established in 1991. The program provides early career, self-directed artists time, space and support to experiment and develop a new body of work in a creative supportive community environment of 160 rotating visiting workshop artists/instructors and hundreds of students. The program encourages early career artists who embrace community and enjoy working in a team environment to apply. Each year, five artists working in different media are selected to participate in the 11-month program, which begins in mid-June and continues through late May of the following year. Artists are given a monthly stipend, shared housing with private bedrooms and meals (during workshop sessions), and a private well lit studio with climate control, a basic work table, shelving and sink. Professional development opportunities are made available though funding and networking sources. At the conclusion of the program, residents exhibit their work collectively in the Arrowmont main gallery and have opportunities to sell their work through Arrowmont’s Artist Outfitters Store. arrowmont.org/artist-in-residence/
Curatorial Statement Lindsay Rogers
“The Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina have long been an important cultural center for studio craft in the United States. This extended history has made this region home to one of the largest concentrations of craft artists in the nation. Taking place during the annual celebration of Tennessee Craft week, the exhibit Up the Gravel Path focuses on the particular significance of the Artist-in-Residence program at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. Located in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, the artist residency at Arrowmont is nationally celebrated for offering emerging artists working in craft-based media concentrated time and space to further their careers. By highlighting the work of the current resident artists at Arrowmont, Up the Gravel path becomes an excellent example of the exceptional quality of contemporary craft being made in East Tennessee. Offering the ETSU community a direct look into an exciting and diverse range of work. This exhibit also takes an important step towards encouraging an ongoing line of dialogue between the two schools and their communities. We couldn’t be more thrilled to have the work of the Arrowmont resident artists here at ETSU.”
Lindsay Rogers is a potter, educator and food enthusiast living in the beautiful mountains of East Tennessee. She received her BA with a concentration in printmaking from Sarah Lawrence College in 2001 and an MFA in ceramics from the University of Florida in 2013. Over the years, Lindsay has used her work as a ceramic artist to advocate for a more locally based, sustainable food system. She has participated in collaborations with other artists, chefs, and farmers, and her pottery, writing, and words can be found in a range of publications from books to blogs, magazines, and podcasts. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Ceramics at East Tennessee State University’s Department of Art & Design. lindsayrogersceramics.com
Jenny’s Departure Jacquard, handwoven cotton, silk, rayon, rosette overshot patterning, natural dye, screenshot from “The Bachelor” (season 22) sashabaskin.com
Sasha Baskin “I examine the glitches in reality through the mathematical materiality of weaving and traditional textile processes. As the ancestor of the modern computer, the loom’s relationship to pixel and screen are unavoidable: the 0s and 1s of binary code are a direct descendant of the overs and unders of woven threads. A woven image exists in the liminal space between screen, drawing, and photograph. Using figures from the popular culture program The Bachelor in a large-scale tapestry-style weaving, I address the drive to create idealized simulations in order to better understand one’s own reality and identity. Natural dye and traditional weaving processes in combination with digital weaving technology allow me to literally integrate the juxtaposition of analog and digital elements which defines a woven image. Dye work and pattern allow for large gestural drawing marks, while individual threads overlap to create literal pixelized imagery. I examine the act of weaving as the creation of screens through which one can see, hide or obscure. I similarly question the role of the observer of a false reality and examine the choice to participate in, construct, or re-create a simulation.”
Sasha Baskin was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut. She received her Bachelors of Fine Art in Drawing from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2014 and her Masters of Fine Art in Craft and Material Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2018. After learning to weave in 2011, Baskin changed her focus from classical drawing to using weaving as a drawing medium. Focusing on the integration of analog and digital weaving processes, Baskin’s practice includes ikat, natural dye processes, hand-controlled damask, handmanipulated glitch, and computerized weaving. Baskin has participated in exhibitions in Texas, Washington D.C, Illinois, Maryland, Connecticut, and Florence, Italy. In 2015 she received the Niche Award in Decorative Fiber and in 2017 she received the Outstanding Student Award from the Surface Design Association. Her work is included in private collections in California, New York, Maryland, and Virginia. She is currently an Artist-in-Residence at Arrowmont School of Crafts.
Higher Places III Wood alyssacoffinart.com
Alyssa Coffin “I make mixed media sculpture, installation, performance, photography and film. Combining organic materials, objects, and often my own body, I create poetic metaphors. I am interested in materials that can be representations of the body or conversely, how the body can become sculptural. My work is an investigation of what it means to be human as mind, body and spirit. These three components are both my concept and how I engage with my process as a collaboration with the triune God. All of my work begins by going for walks, noticing and letting my curiosity guide me either to gather a material or interact with the landscape. The element of spirit is the meaning of my work, which is often revealed to me in the aftermath of creating, transcending my artistic intention. My work is a revealing and concealing. It often subverts conventional narratives of form and function. Themes of death, creation and landscape as internal and external space permeate my work. My process is one of translating or connecting unseen realities with the sacred container of the body. Writing is an important art form for my practice as it helps reveal ideas to me and acts as an access point for the viewer. Poetry is an equal counterpart to my visual language as one enriches the other. By painting visceral images with words, a layering of meaning occurs. My engagement with the world to make art is a form of questioning in a search to uncover reality and what it means to be a spiritual being.�
Alyssa Coffin is an interdisciplinary artist from Providence, RI. She received her BFA in Illustration with a fine art emphasis and an independent study in creative writing from Montserrat College of Art in 2014. In her junior year, she spent a semester studying abroad in Ireland at the Burren College of Art where she discovered a personal visual language in sculpture, installation and performance. Upon receiving an alumni residency award, she returned for a month this past September. She is currently pursuing her studio practice as a 2018-19 Artist-in-Residence at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Tennessee.
Young Buck Found needle point, leather belt, waxed linen, wood beads, bed sheet everetthoffman.net
Everett Hoffman “Reconfigured found objects shape scenes of everyday life, questioning the structural histories that go into defining an identity. Engaging in a multidisciplinary approach of making, my work re-imagines the function of ornamentation and its relationship to the body. I approach new materials and found objects with the eye of a jeweler, highlighting and exploiting the subtle, and often invisible, links between material histories and their connection to identity. Material debris patinated with age like skillets, baseballs, and furniture are used to penetrate normative structures around identity, gender, and sexual desire. Using adornment as a support in my installations I propose a new lens for viewing function through the use of ornamentation. In doing so I highlight the body’s impact on objects, and call into to question the role these objects play in shaping our understanding of identity—An identity that is never singular, constantly evolving, and more often than not contradictory and confusing.”
Everett Hoffman was born and raised in Southwest Idaho surrounded by suburbs and farming towns. He graduated with a BFA in Metals from Boise State University in 2013, and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2018. Everett currently lives in Gatlinburg TN where he is of the 2018-2019 Artist-in-Residence at Arrowmont School of Art and Craft. His current body of work examines everyday material debris reconstructed within the complex narratives of identity, gender, and sexual desire.
Sense of Place Hand painted porcelain, gold luster stephaniemwilhelm.com
Stephanie Wilhelm “My ceramic work uses narrative of the dog and human relationship to communicate an internal sense of belonging and comfort formed through companionship. Vessels depicting imagery of the dog and human interacting in quiet, intimate moments evoke a feeling of warmth and nostalgia. The bond between human and canine was the first documented and strongest inter-species relationship to exist, and it is a dog’s ability to provide unconditional social acceptance and loyalty that is the foundation to one of the oldest and most influential relationships of our time. Throughout Western art, dogs have also played a canonic role extending back thousands of years as a form of symbolism or essential to the meaning of a human cast of characters and narrative. This work references ceramic’s long history and profound connection to painting as decorative, commemorative, and narrative: filling the entire surface, challenging depth, and moving beyond conventional and functional vessel forms.”
Stephanie Wilhelm was raised in the small town of Manchester, MD. While pursuing her BFA at Elizabethtown College, she was introduced to the tradition of pottery studying abroad in Mexico during her junior year. After graduating, she furthered her skills in ceramics by working for a production potter in her hometown and continued her education by earning a Certificate in the Ceramic Arts at Hood College. For 6 years Stephanie found community and education within the wood-firing network around her and completed a yearlong apprenticeship with a wood fire potter. Four of those years she worked teaching classes and assisting visiting artist workshops at the Frederick Clay Studio in Frederick, Maryland. Shortly after, she completed a year-long Artist Residency at the Brockway Center for Arts and Technology in Pennsylvania. Stephanie Wilhelm received the 2017 NCECA Graduate Student Fellowship for her research on Bon Fresco combined with ceramics, which she conducted in Italy, and completed her MFA in Ceramics at the University of Florida in 2018. Stephanie is currently an Artist-inResidence at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.
Windowsill Terracotta, wire, fabric, wood kariwoosley.com
Kari Woosley “Through referencing specific objects and vessels found in the home, I want to connect my work with viewers’ personal experiences. Our domestic spaces, like an overlooked corner of a living room or a catch-all windowsill next to a reading chair, can talk about different moments in our lives, either introspective or relationships with loved ones. I hope to explore that space just under the surface of familiarity through formal elements like color, texture, line, as well as, referencing specific vessels commonly found in our everyday lives. My work becomes the expression of intimacy of the home, and how aspects of our domestic life might be uncomfortably sensitive but common. The forms I have been exploring through a rich, red terracotta clay body are vessels found in the domestic realm of our lives. These vessels, such as dish racks, laundry baskets, or containers for storage, are an inherent, inescapable part of our lives when it comes to the home. The everydayness of the objects speaks to the amount of attention we lack to give them. They are common, easily replaced, and readily forgettable when it comes to how we relate them to our lives. Yet, these objects are unquestionably needed, while also representing decisions that reflect our own daily needs, design tastes, and aspects of our personalities. Maybe this starts a conversation between a viewer and their things, or the space they live to think deeper about how we are connected to the objects that exist in the home, or maybe it is reminiscent of feelings of a childhood home. Ultimately, these domestic vessels reference what is actually found in our homes on a daily basis: a compilation of time, material things and memories.”
Kari Woolsey is from Boca Raton, Florida. She graduated from Florida Atlantic University in 2011, with a BFA in ceramics. In 2015, she completed a year long Post Baccalaureate program in ceramics at the University of Florida. She attended graduate school at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, IL from 2015 to 2018. Supplemental to her formal education, craft school and workshop experiences have aided her development as a functional potter, including her working relationship with the Clay Arts Vegas studio located in Nevada, where she was the 2017 Summer Artist in Residence. Currently, Kari is an Artist-in-Residence at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.
Reception & Panel
Demos
Presented by ETSU Department of Art & Design and the Slocumb Galleries during TN Craft Week in partnership with Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts, and the Tennessee Arts Commission’s Arts Project Support (APS) Grant Department of Art & Design
ETSU Slocumb Galleries
The ETSU Department of Art & Design provides comprehensive training in the visual arts and art history. Our students develop problem solving skills, a strong work ethic, and an ability to communicate verbally and visually through their time with us. Alumni from our program are thriving in various careers int he art. Our faculty includes internationally exhibited artists, published authors, and a Guggenheim fellow. We are affiliated with the Mary B. Martin School of the Arts at ETSU, which sponsors an eclectic calendar of visiting artists, curators, art historians, and exhibitions on the ETSU campus each semester. Our facilities are comprehensive, with materials and spaces for Graphic Design, Fibers, Painting, Printmaking, Ceramics, Drawing, Jewelry & Metals, Sculpture, Analog and Digital Photography, and Extended Media. We have two exhibition spaces, and a satellite gallery in downtown Johnson City, Tipton Street Gallery, where we host exhibitions by students, visiting artists, faculty, and more.
The Slocumb Galleries and Tipton Gallery under the Department of Art & Design at ETSU College of Arts and Sciences promote the understanding, production, and appreciation of visual arts in support of the academic experience and the cultural development of surrounding communities. Our Mission is to promote artistic excellence, diversity, collaborative programming and critical thinking through innovative exhibitions and creative community engagements that provide access to contemporary art. Named after Prof. Elizabeth Slocumb, the art teacher at ETSU in 1911 (then East TN Normal School), and first Chair of the Department of Art.
etsu.edu/cas/art
In 2012, the historic campus of the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts marked its 100th year as a place of education. The early years were about general education in a settlement school setting, but curriculum was soon added in mountain handicrafts to preserve skills and provide vehicles of livelihood for area residents. In 1945, the signature summer workshop program was launched during a period of revival in craft education and the school was opened to people from all over the United States who traveled to take art classes in the beautiful Great Smoky Mountains. Sixty-seven years later, that workshop program has evolved into the extensive summer and fall course offerings of more than 130 classes in contemporary art and crafts.
The Arts Project Support (APS) Grant provides funds for diverse arts projects in urban counties. Proposed arts projects must involve one or more Commissionrecognized art forms, including: visual arts, craft, media, design, music, theater, dance, folk and ethnic, or literary arts. The grant applicants are reviewed based on its merit on demonstrating the artistic, cultural, and/or educational value to the community being served. The proposed project must advance the organization’s mission to the community as well as support the work of artists. The organization must demonstrate its understanding of the diverse interests and needs of the community it serves, the value of public and private partnerships, and the principles of documentation, evaluation, and results used to guide future planning and programming. The organization must also prove financial stability and a broad base of financial support with the ability to carry out proposed project based on history of TAC funding.
arrowmont.org
tnartscommission.org/art-grants/
Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts
etsu.edu/cas/art/galleries
Tennessee Arts Commission Arts Project Support (APS) Grant