Composing Texture
Heather Couch
Artist Statement
This work explores texture through various combinations of structure, gesture, and form. The tactile qualities of the materials are celebrated as well as the processes of making. Marks of the maker remain as fingerprints in soft clay, and freshly washed wool retains a scent of the sheep. Gold glimmers shyly in a set of raw improvisations, and cascades of ceramic columns and gritty fluff form ladders of progress in the processing of experience. This work attempts to address the problem of instability through creative reflection on experience and the layering of material identities. Precarity and tension are not always resolved… they may be peacefully present.
Not everything in life is uncertain. But that which is deserves a time to be recognized. It can be unsettling, daunting, convicting, and sometimes toppling to consider perspectives outside of our own. Being humbled can feel the same, whether by choice, by circumstance, by mistakes, or by global disaster. In grits and breadcrumbs, we may find ourselves working to organize our reality. In that effort is an acute awareness of strength and tenuousness. I am interested in exploring that space through abstract compositions that use texture and materiality to create an atmospheric set of experiences for the viewer, and for myself. I approach this process of discovery with both reason and play, open-endedly using the act of creation as a method of forming ideas. I am fascinated by structures that stand or seem to fall, that lean, that reach, that are bound together in strength-giving efforts and have stray threads that wander aimlessly. Are they different, that which is within, before, and after? There is a warmth or a soul that is continuous inside of each of us, even when externals change, our philosophies are found to be malleable, or grief threatens a fatal fall. Cultures have long celebrated in the good times and the bad. Humanity has often relied on our ability to process pain and joy together. Dialogues of tension and grace play out in this work, with a vibrance and liveliness that I hope will bounce you thoughtfully tentatively and curiously through the space.
My hope is that as we cherish the fragile and the uncertain, we as individuals and as a culture may be more confident to move with sympathy, compassion, and resiliency.
With overlaps of discrepancy and a playful use of material, this exhibition presents work that is warmly exploring the edges of stability.
HEATHER COUCH
COMPOSING TEXTURE
October 19 - 29, 2021
Upper Gallery, Haggerty Art Village
Closing Reception: October 29 | 5-7pm
Gallery Talk: 5:30pm
University of Dallas - Art Department
1845 E. Northgate Drive
Irving, TX 75062
Special thanks to Professor Kelly O'Briant for the invitation and hosting me as a visiting artist, with studio critiques, artist talk, and ceramic sculpture demonstration.
Heather Couch
Artist Statement
This work explores texture through various combinations of structure, gesture, and form. The tactile qualities of the materials are celebrated as well as the processes of making. Marks of the maker remain as fingerprints in soft clay, and freshly washed wool retains a scent of the sheep. Gold glimmers shyly in a set of raw improvisations, and cascades of ceramic columns and gritty fluff form ladders of progress in the processing of experience. This work attempts to address the problem of instability through creative reflection on experience and the layering of material identities. Precarity and tension are not always resolved… they may be peacefully present.
Not everything in life is uncertain. But that which is deserves a time to be recognized. It can be unsettling, daunting, convicting, and sometimes toppling to consider perspectives outside of our own. Being humbled can feel the same, whether by choice, by circumstance, by mistakes, or by global disaster. In grits and breadcrumbs, we may find ourselves working to organize our reality. In that effort is an acute awareness of strength and tenuousness. I am interested in exploring that space through abstract compositions that use texture and materiality to create an atmospheric set of experiences for the viewer, and for myself. I approach this process of discovery with both reason and play, open-endedly using the act of creation as a method of forming ideas. I am fascinated by structures that stand or seem to fall, that lean, that reach, that are bound together in strength-giving efforts and have stray threads that wander aimlessly. Are they different, that which is within, before, and after? There is a warmth or a soul that is continuous inside of each of us, even when externals change, our philosophies are found to be malleable, or grief threatens a fatal fall. Cultures have long celebrated in the good times and the bad. Humanity has often relied on our ability to process pain and joy together. Dialogues of tension and grace play out in this work, with a vibrance and liveliness that I hope will bounce you thoughtfully tentatively and curiously through the space.
My hope is that as we cherish the fragile and the uncertain, we as individuals and as a culture may be more confident to move with sympathy, compassion, and resiliency.
With overlaps of discrepancy and a playful use of material, this exhibition presents work that is warmly exploring the edges of stability.
HEATHER COUCH
COMPOSING TEXTURE
October 19 - 29, 2021
Upper Gallery, Haggerty Art Village
Closing Reception: October 29 | 5-7pm
Gallery Talk: 5:30pm
University of Dallas - Art Department
1845 E. Northgate Drive
Irving, TX 75062
Special thanks to Professor Kelly O'Briant for the invitation and hosting me as a visiting artist, with studio critiques, artist talk, and ceramic sculpture demonstration.