A Woman's Figure(s)

Patti Warashina

Tip Toland

Beth Cavener Stichter

Symposium

As part of our They Speak for Themselves series we are pleased to present three of the most influential and accomplished figurative artists in the country. Coincidentally, they also happen to all reside in the state of Washington. You are invited to a symposium entitled A Woman’s Figure(s).

If you have followed American ceramics at all for the past nearly fifty years then you are familiar with the work of Patti Warashina. A prolific and gifted artist, Patti has, both as educator and artist, impacted the work of many in the field. The list of awards she has garnered is lengthy. Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington, recently she has been the Voulkos Fellow at the Archie Bray Foundation and a Regis Master at the Northern Clay Center. The scope of her work has made her an icon in American ceramics for decades deftly shifting and growing as a mature artist.

Beth Cavener Stichter in the course of a few short years went from being chosen as an emerging artist at NCECA to a one person show at Garth Clark Gallery, the Smithsonian Craft Invitational, the Virginia A. Groot Award for Sculpture and the first Jean Griffith Fellowship artist at Pottery Northwest. Her animal figures have reflected the human condition in such a mesmerizing way as to almost become human themselves. Her uncanny sense of the theatrical in each of her subjects has also shown a flair for staging and installation.

Tip Toland is an alumna of Pottery Northwest, having worked and taught in the area for many years. Her recent show at the Bellevue Art Museum was a tour de force marriage of attention to detail and realism with a sensitivity to the metaphysical stream that we all inhabit. Her subjects often exist outside the mainstream and are ever so interesting because they remind us of how much in common we have with them. Tip too is a Virginia A. Groot Award recipient and is the current Jean Griffith Fellowship artist at Pottery Northwest.

Our moderator for the evening, Namita Gupta Wiggers is curator at the Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, Oregon, where she directs the exhibition, collection and public programming. Her recent projects include The Academy is Full of Craft, Call + Response, Generations: Ken Shores and Manuf®actured: The Conspicuous Transformation of Everyday Objects among others. Wiggers recently co-authored Unpacking the Collection: Selections from the Museum of Contemporary Craft with contributions by Janet Koplos and Glenn Adamson. She served as a panelist for the Pew Charitable Trust (2007, 2009) and for the Bush Foundation (2008), and has written for The Journal of Museum Education, Art Lies and Metalsmith.

Please join us at the Seattle Central Library on Friday, October 2nd at 6 pm for an exciting and insightful evening with these outstanding women from the Pacific Northwest. There is no admission charge for the event and parking is available for a fee under the library.

After Party

Alright then, after the stunning imagery and invigorating discussion, please join us at Pottery Northwest to meet the “works in progress”. The Artists-in-Residence program here has grown exponentially in a few short years. We invite you to come and meet another talented group of artists on an ascending arc. Look at the work, ask questions, have a refreshment and then get Beth, Tip, Namita or Patti to tell you what they think about what’s going on in our studio! Immediately following the library event at our studio!

This evening is made possible with the generous support of the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs and 4Culture.