Carol Kroll started painting at a young age with a private teacher and continued taking art classes through her teens. She later attended Newark School of Fine And Industrial Art in New Jersey and graduated with a diploma in textile design. For most of her adult life, She held a successful career as a textile designer in the home furnishings industry. Then she needed to redirect her life. Kroll is one of the emerging artists showing their work at
Emergence a show at the CCCC Gallery in Siler City beginning with the Third Friday Art Walk on April 17th. Meet them at a reception from 6 to 9 PM. Emergence runs through May 15th.
“I worked as a designer close to 30 years,” recalls Kroll. “I loved my work and felt fortunate that I had a career I enjoyed and at which I was good. My company relocated me to Burlington NC, and then had a major restructuring, moving most of their operation to China. I soon discovered that textile companies all over the country were doing the same. Manufacturing and even the design were outsourced. That is when I discovered CCCC and the Sustainable Agriculture program.”
Kroll soon conceived the idea of combining gardening and design, creating beautiful sculpture using her home-grown gourds. ”I love growing things, but my first love, art, kept tugging at me. I wondered how I could combine them. The sculpture program at CCCC is helping me do just that. I am sculpting the gourds I grow and through the Exhibit Design class, I am learning how to get the exposure I need. I hope to continue my studies in the sculpting program to learn about marketing my work. Who knows where it could lead, I am still emerging.”
“What sets the CCCC Ceramic and Metal Sculpture program apart from other professional arts and crafts programs is the inclusion of entrepreneurial instruction that will assist in the planning, operation, and marketing of a professional craft studio and gallery,” asserts
Phillip Ashe, the program’s director. “This program was created in response to the expanding interest in pottery, sculpture, and professional arts in the central region of North Carolina. Our students in the Exhibit Design class are learning to display their work professionally. This show is like their final exam.”
Holly Felice notes, “The CCCC program is a great way to jump-start an arts career. I gained both the technical skills and the marketing know how to live as an artist. The teachers give each student a lot of personal attention.”Felice is a joyful young woman, known to whistle and sing while creating her unique sculptures. However, she is stone serious about two things – her art and recycling cast off objects. “I love working with scrap, wondering what it can be. It’s inspiring rather than intimidating, because I can experiment without fear of wasting some expensive art material. Felice considers herself a mixed media artist. “I want to learn everything about using wood, metal, clay, or glass – whatever material tells the best story,” she explains.
Fellow sculptor
Sharyn Walker has a degree in Graphic Design. After working for several years as a two-dimensional artist, she took a CCCC class in Welding for Artists, and fell in love at once with three dimensional art, and working with metal. Her background in design is a strong part of every sculpture she creates.. “My love for animals and nature are usually reflected in my art, whether it is a rabbit, dragonfly or a flower sculpture made out of old tractor or automobile parts, found from a scrap yard. Creating art out of something once vitally useful, but later discarded, gives her a sense of satisfaction in holding on to things the way they used to be.”
Ceramic artist
Faith Flowers says, “I am in love with clay! There is just no other way to put it. When I am throwing at the wheel, hand-building a piece, or altering a thrown piece; I slip into my own little world. I feel centered - that all is right as I work on a piece.” Flowers was a trained commercial Interior Designer, with many years of experience. “After taking a six-year break, in which I became a Mom – twice! - I started taking structured, serious clay classes at CCCC and have never looked back. I know from this point on, I will always remain in the clay. It is where I feel at home and alive. It is a part of me, and I am a part of each of my pieces.”
For
Trish Welsh, making pots started as a way to relax from the stresses of her work as a clinical social worker because the process required both my physical and mental energy, “I was able to focus on learning to throw without the distraction of work. Eventually I traded psychotherapy for pottery and began taking classes, first at Claymakers studio and then enrolling in the pottery and sculpture program at CCCC.” Welsh’s interest has been primarily in making functional ware and fits well with her love for food and cooking. “I want the pots to function well and look beautiful with the food on the table. I am inspired by the textures and patterns found in my daily life like sand on the beach, bark on the trees and ferns uncurling in the spring.”
Deborah Motter explains, “Push, pull, squish, flatten and round back up into a ball; I love the malleability of clay.” From childhood, Motter has been creatively engaged with many media. Now stoneware and porcelain happily exist in her artistic world. They get carved, plodded, pinched, patted, and even thrown into realistic portraits, fantasy pieces or various pottery objects. “How much will the clay let me manipulate it, and what patinas are the most expressive of the shape beneath? These are questions I enjoy exploring endlessly.”
Ruth Morgans makes wheel thrown pots that are often altered, paddled or stamped and
occasionally hand built. She uses earth toned, layered glazes and slips that respond serendipitously to atmospheric firing. She notes, ”It is my goal as a potter to express the surprising convergence of functional, funky and elegant while utilizing the capacity of clay to accommodate extraordinary machinations, prods, and pulls. Ultimately, I want people to have pots in their homes that they find beautiful and that can be used in their everyday lives.”
Ruth Ella Brown recalls, “Six years ago I took a pottery class, and immediately fell in love with clay and the unimaginable creative opportunities the medium provides. I have since studied sculpture at universities, and have taken workshops to gain techniques to transform a large block of clay into an object of art or an original display.” Brown’s sculptures are inspired from her everyday observations, with a few abstract designs thrown in. “Sculpting faces that have worn features showing their life journeys has become a way to stay connected with folks whose life lines cross mine.”
Strange creatures inhabit the mind of
Dr. Forrest Greenslade. His whimsical sculptures, which he calls Forrest DwellersSM, are derived from a life-long love of nature and mythology. Greenslade’s work is highly stylized, bounding on cartoonish. His sculptures are enhanced with innovative coatings and patinas producing color, texture and an illusion of movement. “I want people to experience motion and emotion in my art,” Greenslade asserts, “so my faces are seldom symmetrical and my figures just can’t stand still.” Greenslade’s use of materials is eclectic. “Because of my scientific training, I tend to be experimental in my choice of media,” he explains. “I use metal, concrete, clay, acrylics, wood, found objects.” Greenslade stresses, “I gain greatly from the CCCC program, the teachers provide both technical and conceptual guidance, and the feedback and camaraderie of fellow students is a joy.”
The Professional Arts and Crafts Program (
http://www.cccc.edu/curriculum/majors/sculpture/) in clay and metal sculpture has a unique design and location. The program, the only one of its kind in North Carolina, was developed to teach artistic skills in pottery, clay sculpture, and metal sculpture. The course work in the Sculpture Program concentrates on the development of skills in clay and metal. Emphasis is placed on hands-on training. Courses in design, pottery, metal and clay sculpture, and basic welding give students needed fundamentals in this creative art form. Additional classes provide students with training in metal casting, glaze formulation, kiln design and construction, and advanced artistic design. Students can become a part of an arts community when enrolled in the CCCC program. Located in an historic building in downtown Siler City, NC, the facilities are newly renovated and feature gas and electric kilns.
For more information contact
Phillip Ashe (phone: (919) 742-4156, email: pgashe29@cccc.edu).
Caption: Sculpture created using a gourd by Carol Kroll
