SPRING STUDIO SALE!!

"She's a Fighter" 68" x 27" x 27"
She has five interchangeable child's boxing gloves with free-syle motion embroidery patches that say: "Strength," "Focus," "Grace," and "Patience."  All things need to achieve our goals.  In the back of the sculpture, hidden in the newel post, is a boxing glove that can be substituted for the others that say's "Bitchy" because sometimes we need to bring out a little attitude!

SPRING STUDIO SALE!!!!!

From now until May 10th, I will be offering a range of work from floor pieces to small works under $100 

I am trying to raise funds to study abroad this summer!!!

Can't make it to the studio?  No problem!  Many of the pieces are available for purchase NOW! I will be updating periodically as work is finished.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the work or prices at kirsten@kirstenstingle.com.

Please click here to see the items for sale on the Studio Sale Album 

"Nesting" 3.5" x 3.5" x 2"

"Play With Consequences" 43" x 21" x 24" 

A few spaces are left for a special figurative workshop in April!  

Narrative Potential of the Figure Workshop

This four day workshop will allow a more thorough examination of the figure and the seamless addition of narrative elements.

Townsend Atelier, Chattanooga TN

April 4th - April 7th, 9am - 5pm

Special presentation of new work and slide lecture at River Gallery on Saturday, 6 - 7pm.

As a vehicle for story telling there are an infinite number of ways to express and interpret the figure.  In this four day workshop, we will explore the powerful narrative potential of the human form through the construction of the full figure.  While special attention will be paid to human anatomy and proportions, we will also focus on expression and gesture as the powerhouses of storytelling.  Students will be asked to bring in narrative inspirational materials, such as the written word, objects, photographs, etc.  We will use these items as a springboard to build a figure that expresses a story and discuss how to add mixed media and found objects to create a seamless narrative.  Class time will also include field trips to local treasure troves of inspiration!!  Chattanooga is the perfect environment to get lost in inspiration and Townsend Atelier is a true creative gem. 

For more information contact Peggy or Stan Townsend at Townsend Atelier.

2014: New Year, New Work, New Adventures

I'm so excited about the workshop opportunities planned for this year.  I hope you can take some time to join me on a journey with the ceramic figure.

Workshop Schedule for 2014:

Narrative Exploration:  The Full Figure

Take a break from the cold and have some fun focusing on the creation of the figure in ceramics!

March 3rd - 5th

Palm Beach, FL  

Contact: Betty Wilson @ 561-585-7744 or potteryme@aol.com

Narrative Potential of the Full Figure

We will explore storytelling through the creation of the full figure.  Field trips to inspire the narrative potential in all of us will be part of the workshop.

April 4th - 7th

Chattanooga, TN

Contact:  Peggy Townsend @ 1-877-903-1488 or peggy@townsendatelier.com

Out of the Box:  Mixed Media Workshop with Lorraine Glessner and Kirsten Stingle

In this small workshop we will be creating narratives with encaustic, ceramic, and mixed media techniques.  Class size is limited to six people.

May 30th - June 1st

Kirsten Stingle Studio, Atlanta, GA

Contact: Kirsten Stingle @ 678-923-3412 or kirsten@kirstenstingle.com

Figuratively Speaking

This workshop intensive will focus on telling a story through the creation of the full figure in porcelain stoneware.

August 22nd - 24th

Mudfire Ceramic Studio, Atlanta, GA

Contact: 404-377-8033 or info@mudfire.com

Week 1: The Set-up

SHADOW CIRCUS

It's slowly getting there!!

It is finally here!!  I can't believe it!  It is exciting to finally see all the work Lorraine Glessner (Lori) and I have been building in the same space!  In the past blogs I have focused on how I was preparing for the show, not knowing what Lori had in store.  She and I have had dual exhibitions together and I was confident that our work would compliment each other.  While my work is narrative and Lori's is abstract, both require the viewer to explore the work for their own truth.

This week's blog is going to focus on Lori's amazing, fantabulous encaustic paintings. According to Lori, she uses "satellite-imaging software to study how the grid organizes, divides, connects and interlaces life.  The graphic patterns of community borders, urban grids, suburban development clusters and sinuous superhighways create amazing graphic patterns that inspire" her work.  

Lori continues, "Yet, as sprawl continues to scourge, cut and form the earth’s surface, working with, as well as against its natural tendencies, it leaves a strikingly beautiful as well as horrifying mark."  As a viewer one can easily get lost in these opposing forces, finding beauty in the erosion and a softness in the harshest marks.  

 

Lori creates a sensuous depth through patterns and layers of encaustic with hair, silk and cotton fabric, beeswax, fire, rust and plant staining.  All these elements "speak to and embody life and life cycles."  Although one can feel as though they are sinking into another world, Lori's patterns and grids help to keep one grounded and prevent the viewer from being engulfed in an organic abstraction.

It is difficult for pictures to adequately convey the lusciousness of Lori's encaustic work.  I have tried to take some close-ups to help, but you have to see them in person to really appreciate the visual and conceptual depth.  You will have the opportunity to do just that starting this Saturday at the opening of Shadow Circus.  I invite you to dive in!  The water's fine! 

Week Two: Images of What's to Come

All the work is packed into boxes and will begin to make the transition out of the studio and on display. Some will go to the Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art in Marietta, GA this week (to see the pieces available at the museum  go to Signature Contemporary Craft).  Other pieces will be shipped in the next week to River Gallery in Chattanooga, TN.  

Until then, here is a sneak peek of what is coming:

Exotic Blooms

Standard Bearer

Amplification

Line of Sight

Life's Potential

Vérité

Prey

Secrecy

Remembrance

Foresight

Eye of the Wind

Desire

Endangered

I'll Take the Blows

Hope to see you there!!

Week Three: Thank You to a Mentor

"Maestro's Touch"

"Play with Consequences"

Now it is the waiting period.  I have done all I can creating this new body of work and now it is time to wait to deliver to the museum, wait for the opening, wait for the response. Waiting is driving me crazy!!  While I was building and working in the studio I felt in control. I made the decisions on how to move forward and push my work and develop my skills.  But now I have to release control and let the chips fall where they may, and that is not an easy thing to do for someone that is goal oriented and, well, a bit of a control freak.

But during this time I want to thank someone who made this opportunity possible.  No, this is not an awards speech in which I list everyone who I have worked with through this project, although I am grateful for what everyone has done including my family. (Yes, that was my awards shout out.)  Instead I want to focus on one person who has been instrumental in my growth as an artist.  I am extremely blessed to have the support of Carr McCuiston at the Signature Contemporary Craft Gallery in Atlanta. Carr has been a coach and mentor to me from the beginning of my career and I am so lucky to have the encouragement from someone so respected and knowledgable in contemporary craft.  I know I am not alone in stating that Carr strives to bring out the best in every artist she represents and that is a rare quality.

"Soothsayer"

It is because of Carr's relationship and recommendation to the Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art that the Shadow Circus exhibition is a reality.  It is a precious opportunity not only because it has challenged my work conceptually and technically, but has also allowed me to develop my narratives beyond the boundaries within which I was working.  Thank you Carr for all you work and support!!

And if you haven't yet been to Signature Contemporary Craft Gallery, it is well worth a trip to see all the outstanding artists she represents.  I am so very honored to be among them.

Week 4: Coming Full Circle

Life's Potential, close-up

 My blog and my collection have come full circle.  The first blog I posted about the new collection was Week 18: The Slow Burn (May 28th) and it was this very piece, now entitled Life's Potential.  In that blog I discussed the conceptual process that went into this piece before and while I was building it.  Now, three months later I am happy to say it is finally finished.  The torsos sit on a antique french bottle dryer on a stand I welded.  Each candle was individually made (no molds were used) and after the pieces were fired, both the candles and torso were treated with encaustic to create a deep wax finish.  All of the globes were painted and also treated with wax.

The torsos are tied to each other with a harness brace (made of clay) I modeled after an antique back brace I have in the studio, indicating they are two halves of a whole. Also, each figure has vintage millinery feathers on her head.  I have used these feathers often in this collection not only to serve the purpose of a headdress, but also to reference the human need we have to possess what we can't have.

Life's Potential

The building/assembly time for Shadow Circus is just about come to a close, which is both exhilarating and frightening.  Everything I have worked on for the past year and a half is before me.  Now it is time to send the pieces off into the world (specifically, to the Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art in Marietta, GA and The River Gallery in Chattanooga, TN).  I am proud of what I have been able to accomplish both technically and conceptually and feel so blessed that I am able to share my work with others.

And I just want to give out a huge shout out to the wonderful artist who photographs my work, David Gulisano.  He has endured the onslaught of ceramic figures I have brought into his studio and patiently waited as I painstakingly put together each piece...and then asked for alternate shots.  Thank you Dave! You make my work look great!! (Of course, all of these are from my husband's iPhone and clearly not from Dave's!)

The master himself, Dave!