Kat Cole, “Boulder Necklace.” Mixed Media. Photo courtesy of the artist.
As part of the #5womenartists campaign, this week we bring you five talented women artists working in traditional craft media. This group of female artists is special because they are represented by Asher Gallery at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC).
Kat Cole is a Dallas-based metalsmith who finds meaning and connection through the observance of places she inhabits. Natural landscape, architecture, color palette and distinct regional culture are channeled into her work along with the anti-aesthetic aspects of a place–abandoned buildings and factories, scrap yards, piles of trash. Using found materials in her work allows Cole to create a direct connection between art, object, and place. As the co-founder of Jewelry Edition, Cole travels across the country to support and promote the work of emerging jewelry artists, seeking new ways to attract and educate people about contemporary jewelry through technology and pop-up shows.
Glass artist Heather Palmer believes the things we bring into our homes are extremely important. “A home should be a treasure chest of the life we have lived,” she says. Her work is a balance of organic patterns and shapes with modern lines and colors. By exploring the line between natural and manmade, her glass objects are distinct and original.
Jennifer Hill is a ceramic studio artist currently working and teaching in Austin, Texas. Her petite studio inspires her to create ceramics of diminutive proportions that derive from the luscious flora and fauna from “the Garden Isle” in Kauai, Hawaii. Hill enjoys making objects that have an unexpected, yet satisfying tactile experience. She primarily uses hand-building and wheel-throwing techniques to create an unusual and perplexing structure for utilitarian purposes. She was an artist-in-residence and instructor at Chester Springs Studio in Pennsylvania, and later moved to Oregon to teach at Portland Community College and Multnomah Art Center. In Kauai, she consulted for art programs in public schools and exhibited artwork, including the notable Hawaii’s Modern Masters in Waikiki.
Christina Carfora creates narrative ceramic sculptures that explore the mind and human relationships. Each of her pieces begin by choosing its title, followed by a series of sketches communicating the narrative. Carfora pays particular attention to the face’s subtle nuances or the posture of the piece and the story is completed in the details. She constructs the work using slab and coil construction, as well as altered wheel-thrown forms. Other techniques include colored slips, glaze, salt-firing, raku and cold finishes. The use of imagery and symbolism such as people, animals and organic forms, are used as a vehicle to tell stories about triumphs, failures, opinions or revelations that we all experience at some point in our lives. Carfora was a resident artist at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft in 2013, and is currently a graduate student in the ceramics department at the University of Florida.
Caitie Sellers, a former resident artist at HCCC, was recently the co-director/resident artist at Clamp Light Artist Studios and Gallery in San Antonio, Texas, and is a current member of The Elevator Collective, a multi disciplinary craft studio in Richmond, Virginia. Sellers creates abstract and literal interpretations of the architecture that surrounds her. Her work is informed by observations of the many places she has lived in, from rural Virginia to Central America. Sellers is interested in themes of urbanization, architecture, and social development, and uses the local landscape to inspire her work for both the body, and for the wall.
We’d love to hear from you!
March is Women’s History Month, please let us know who are your favorite women artists and why? Comment below, or send us an email with your response. You can also tweet us @CraftHouston, or share images of female artists who inspire you via Instagram!
To learn more and join the conversation, click here!
