Curatorial Statement
Artist’s Reception: Friday, May 6, 2016 from 5-7pm MT
Exhibition Posted Online: Monday, May 9 by 10am Mountain Time
For more information: 406-446-3993
We are pleased to have Deborah Schwartzkopf for a solo exhibition as the Red Lodge Clay Center celebrates its 10th year anniversary. Deborah has been represented by the Red Lodge Clay Center for a number of years and it is our honor to feature her artwork in the only solo exhibition of the year. She combines wheel-thrown pieces with slab-built elements to create artworks that are complex utilitarian forms. Soft planes are contrasted with animated lines that become geometric, dramatic, and sensual. Deborah’s attention to detail is evident not only in her forms, but also in the application of her glazing process. The hard geometric lines become soft by Deborah’s use of satin glazes with glossy accents. The placement and design of the accent dots emphasize the lines of the forms but also create secondary contours that provide additional focal points. With lines moving in every direction and all around the piece, the viewer’s eye has now place to stop to rest. This is what makes the artwork of Deborah Schwartzkopf dynamic, energetic, and complex.
“Pots are a place where I embrace abstraction of emotions and communication in form. Birds are starting places in my study of stance and expression. I want to capture their expressions of precision and breath. The awkward pelican and elegant, buoyant loon embody curious shapes I mesh with geometric, sensual, and architectural elements. On the surfaces of my work, I merge our culture’s signals and nature’s placement of hue. Even in the Seattle winter, humming birds flash and scoot for nectar from my rosemary bush. Traffic lights illuminate the night, demanding attention as I bike through the city. With intentional placement, these visual messages imply function, trigger associations, and call for exploration. I find the relationship between form and surface integral and defining. Each informs the other within my cyclic studio practice.”
Schwartzkopf explains, “I want my pots to live in the kitchen where economy and celebration infuse life with purposeful beauty.”