About the HCCC Residency
Program
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) is
a non-profit arts organization dedicated to presenting the
dynamic world of contemporary craft to the Houston community.
The Artist in Residence program is designed to offer time and
space for craft artists to focus on their creative work and
interact with the public. The program supports emerging,
mid-career and established artists working in all craft media,
including but not limited to: clay, fiber, glass, metal and
wood. Artists selected for the program receive a 200
square foot studio and a monthly stipend. The studios are
equipped with sinks, telephones and internet DSL access.
Artists are selected based on the quality of their creative
work, the ability to interact with the public, career
direction and program diversity. Please
click here to review the
guidelines for submission.
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| CURRENT RESIDENTS
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| ELAINE
BRADFORD |
| Mixed-Media Artist |
| 713.529.4848 ext. 305
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Elaine Bradford is a mixed-media artist
who lives and works in Houston, TX. When she was
young, Bradford was taught to crochet by her grandmother
and has worked with this craft throughout her
life: “The repetitive process of taking a single
strand of yarn, looping it together with a hook, and
creating a fabric is like a magic trick. It’s simple in
execution and produces astounding results. The act of
making sweaters brings to mind hours of labor, societal
histories, and concepts of comfort and
warmth.”
The artist’s recent
work involves the surreal combination of crocheted
sweaters and taxidermy animals. Bradford says,
“These ‘trophy’ animals are such odd objects to begin
with, putting them in custom sweaters makes them that
much more peculiar. . . The materiality and familiarity
of the crochet allows the viewer to be drawn in and have
empathy for the trophies. This absurd domesticity
resurrects these inanimate objects and brings them into
a new life.”
Bradford holds a
MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and a BFA
from the University of Texas at Austin. Her work has
been exhibited in numerous group shows throughout the
United States and several recent solo shows in Houston,
Austin, and St. Louis. She is a founding member of
Box 13 ArtSpace and is a member of the Artist Board of
DiverseWorks and the Programming Committee of Lawndale
Art Center, all in Houston. Bradford was the recipient
of a 2008 Individual Artist Fellowship Grant from the
Houston Arts Alliance. She will be with Houston Center
for Contemporary Craft through August of 2010. To
read more about Elaine’s work, visit www.elainebradford.com.
Above: Elaine Bradford,
Mongolian Knotted Deer, 2007. Taxidermy
Mongolian spotted deer, crocheted yarn, fabric,
fiberfil. 96”/22”/28.” Photo by Elaine
Bradford.
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| GABRIEL
CRAIG |
| Jeweler / Metalsmith |
| 713.529.4848 ext.
303 |
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Gabriel
Craig is a metalsmith, writer, and craft activist. His
studio work has been exhibited nationally and
internationally since 2006, and his writing has appeared
in Metalsmith and American Craft
magazines. In addition to founding his own blog,
Conceptual Metalsmithing, in 2008, Craig is the
Editor-in-Chief of the forthcoming National Student
Craft Zine. In 2008, he received a graduate research
grant from the Center for Craft, Creativity & Design
to pursue research on 19th Century ironwork. Craig
received his BFA in Metals/Jewelry from Western Michigan
University in 2006 and his MFA in Jewelry and
Metalworking from Virginia Commonwealth University in
2009. He is also an adjunct faculty member in Metals at
Houston Community College.
Together
with his partner, Amy Weiks, Craig will share a studio
at HCCC through August of 2010. For more
information, please visit www.gabrielcraigmetalsmith.com
and www.conceptualmetalsmithing.com.
Also look for Gabriel Craig’s article, The
Transgressions of Lauren Kalman from the Oct./Nov.
issue of American Craft. http://www.americancraftmag.org/
Gabriel Craig,
Altruist no. 3, 2009. Recycled silver, gold, and
citrine. Photo by the artist. |
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| KELLEY
EGGERT |
| Ceramic Artist |
| 713.529.4848 ext.
304 |
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Inspired by nature and the genetic
instinct of all creatures to procreate and evolve,
Kelley Eggert’s intimate ceramic sculptures invite the
viewer to marvel at the intricacy and complexity of
their parts. “Sex is why most of the planet’s organisms
exist. Sexual reproduction is the key to evolution and
the strongest instinct encoded in the genetics of all
living things. . . My ceramic sculptures exploit the
ways in which the plant and animal kingdom
procreates.”
The artist’s clay forms are created utilizing
hand-building techniques, including building solid and
with slabs, coiling, pinching and pressing clay into
plaster molds. The clay is low fired with underglaze and
luster and finished with cold surfaces such as acrylic
paint, nylon flocking, silicone, plastic resin and
monofilament.
Eggert holds an MFA with a
concentration in ceramics from the University of
Florida, Gainesville, and a BA from the University of
Akron, in Akron Ohio. In addition to receiving the
University of Florida Alumni Fellowship, she was also
awarded two Albert K. Murray grants and won the Peter
Pugger Award at the 2007 NCECA Regional Student Juried
Exhibition. She currently teaches adjunct at Lone Star
Community College and Houston Community College.
She will be with HCCC through August of
2010.
Kelley Eggert, Purple Pod,
2008. Ceramic and paint. Photo by the
artist. | |
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| JEFF
FORSTER |
| Ceramic Artist / Helen Drutt Studio
Fellow |
| 713.529.4848 ext.
302 |
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Ceramic Artist Jeff Forster creates
uniquely textured ceramic objects that reference
sustenance, ritual and ceremony. By using modern
packing materials as molds and leaving evident the
barcodes on these molds, Forster’s art brings together
the handmade quality of traditional arts and the mass
production of consumer items.
While some
of his pieces might actually be used, others quietly
allude to the idea of function: “With this
reference to function, formal quality and implied age,
my hope is that these objects carry connotations of
ritual or the sacred. The irony lies in that these
precious objects come from industrial materials. . .
While these molds are mass-produced, my pieces are one
of a kind, even if produced from the same mold.”
Forster holds a MFA in
Ceramics from Southern Illinois University in
Edwardsville, Illinois, and a BA in Art Education from
Saint John’s University in Collegeville,
Minnesota. He currently teaches at North Harris
Community College and is a member of ClayHouston,
National Council for Education of the Ceramic Arts, and
College Art Association. In 2009, he was selected by
Helen Drutt English to be the Center’s Helen Drutt
Studio Fellow. He will be with HCCC through
July of 2010.
Above: Jeff Forster,
Plate, 2008. Wood-fired stoneware. Photo by
the artist. |
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| PAMELA
SAGER |
| Fiber Artist |
| 713.529.4848 ext.
306 |
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Pamela Sager grew up watching her grandmothers
knit and quilt and completed her first quilt when she was
19. She was also influenced by her engineering father
and grew up with a fascination for the artistic use of
building and manufacturing materials. This fascination,
combined with her love of textiles, led to a career as an
interior designer and, later, as a fiber artist working
primarily in industrial felt.
“I enjoy the
challenge of working in three dimensions and constructing
workable pieces within the parameters offered by the systemic
qualities of felt. . . The conventional uses for industrial
felt are endless. I am finding so are the artistic uses.
The inherent properties of industrial felt, such as density
and strength, make it a suitable medium for pieces where form
is a priority. I also enjoy using materials in
unconventional ways.”
Sager holds a BS, Magna
Cum Laude, in Interior Design, from Northern Arizona
University. Her work was recently exhibited in the Houston
Area Fiber Artists’ 2009 Juried Exhibition at Archway Gallery,
where she won the “Juror’s Choice Award.” She is a
member of the Houston Association of Fiber Artists and Studio
Art Quilt Associates, among other professional organizations.
She will be with HCCC through August of
2010.
Left: Pamela Sager,
Full of Potential, 2009. Industrial felt and merino
wool. Photo by Pamela. H.W. Sager
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| AMY WEIKS |
| Jeweler / Metalsmith |
| 713.529.4848 ext.
303 |
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Amy Weiks is a nationally exhibiting
artist with an artistic background that is materially
and technically diverse. This diversity has greatly
influenced the way she makes work, often moving fluidly
from one material or process to another and blurring the
lines between traditional media. It is the intimacy and
interactivity of the object that draws her to jewelry
and metalsmithing. While a desire to communicate her
ideas through the objects she creates tends to dictate
material choices, she also works very intuitively, often
playing with a material or process until an idea emerges
and aesthetic decisions become more conscious and
deliberate. Some of her material choices include
precious and non-precious metals, fiber, thread, beads,
and paint.
Weiks received a BFA in Photography from
Western Michigan University in 2004. She has also
studied at prestigious institutions such as the Glasgow
School of Art in Scotland (printmaking) and Virginia
Commonwealth University (jewelry/metals). At HCCC,
she will share a studio with her partner, Gabriel Craig,
through August of 2010. For more information,
visit www.amyweiks.com.
Amy Weiks, Equal and
Opposite no.11, 2009. Brooch: copper, sterling,
stainless steel, paint, nylon, beads. Photo by the
artist.
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