Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Human psychology and animal form collide in Garfield.
The result is the art of Beth Cavener Stichter.
Working in a studio at the edge of town, Stichter and three interns labor on her signature clay sculpting which is gaining ground in the art world.
Stichter’s work sells for tens of thousands of dollars at an exclusive gallery in Manhattan, and is on display at the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, Wis., and Contemporary Museum of Honolulu.
Stichter and husband Matt moved to Garfield four years ago from Ohio. She grew up all over the U.S. as a daughter of an academic and an artist. She fell in love with the Northwest during an artist residency in Helena, Mont. When Matt had a chance at a job teaching philosophy at WSU, Beth urged him to apply. They found Pullman and Moscow to be crowded and kept looking for a house with studio space.
They found it in Garfield, in the former home of Jack and Mary Doebler, glass artists who opened the Green Frog cafe in Palouse.
When the Stichters moved in, they converted the glass-burning studio into a guest house for interns and turned the garage into a studio which is heated by a wood-burning stove.
Stichter brings in interns who work with her in one to three-month durations. Her three current apprentices are from Coeur d’Alene, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Next year, she will have one from Scotland.
Stichter plans a “show year” in 2012.
She got her start as a resident artist in Montana from 2002-04, funded by a grant from Helena’s Archie Bray Foundation, a nationally known destination for clay artists in America.
“The people in the northwest are the most friendly in the most honest and straightforward way,” Stichter said. “At the same time there is a fierce independence which I relate to.”
In 2009, she received a $7,000 Artist Trust Fellowship grant from Washington State to finish the guest house and bring in the interns. Then she was invited to participate in a project with USA Artists.
For this endeavor, Stichter invited two WSU Fine Arts graduate students to help her create six major figures.
Fiber specialist Lauren Turk is one, along with Meredith Lewis, who is growing sugar crystals on a piece to create a chandelier. In addition, Stichter’s mother in Tennessee, who is also a clay sculptor, is contributing on a figure titled “The Bride,” which will feature a 30-foot long wedding train, made with more than 300 vintage doilies.
The show will take place next October at the Claire Oliver Gallery in New York.
One piece – a gray wolf retching colored ribbons –will be previewed at the Bellevue Art Museum in March.
“We’re all pretty excited,” Stichter said.
Her representation with the Claire Oliver Gallery began in 2007, and another New York gallery previously represented her for three years.
She has had a website for her work since 1994.
Origins
It all began with a Bachelor’s of Arts from Haverford College outside Philadelphia. Stichter was a triple major of physics, astronomy and fine arts. She finished with a general Bachelor of Arts degree and then got a Masters in Fine Arts in Ceramic Sculpture at Ohio State.
“Part of what I love about clay is that it requires engineering and physics,” Stichter said.
Her current direction is animal forms exhibiting human issues.
“I’ve always been fascinated by human psychology, but with human figures it was difficult to be subtle thematically,” she said. “So I started using animal figures. These are animal bodies expressing what people do.”
Stichter’s hero from childhood was Carl Sagan. From his writings, she learned that the human brain stem is identical to a crocodile’s. The next part of the brain is identical to a cow’s.
“These are the primal parts, just waiting for a subconscious moment to emerge,” said Stichter. “You have a reptile, a mammal and a human all fighting each other for emotional control.”
Her three current interns are Sarah Moore, Mike Parsley and Jon Bashioum. They receive a small stipend. Housing is free.
One-third of Stichter’s time is spent on the phone and tending to the office. She often shapes clay while wearing a headset.
The largest scale piece Stichter has produced consists of two six-foot kissing goats. It is on permanent display at the Chazen Museum in Wisconsin. Another, a 12-foot goat which “breathes,” was bought by the Contemporary Museum of Honolulu.
The process
She calls her new work her most ambitious.
The stoneware clay, which is her raw material, comes from Pomona, Calif., arriving on a truck a ton of clay at a time.
Her process begins with a study model, usually about eight inches tall, which depicts the larger piece to come.
Then Stichter engineers and designs a metal armature to scale, which serves as a framework or internal skeleton. It is made of common galvanized pipe.
Then she takes clay and “masses” it in, building the shape of the animal.
The next step takes two to three months. She cuts small sections off and hollows them out.
The hollowing makes the sculpture lighter, and thus structurally stronger. It is in this stage which Stichter refines and hones the sculpture’s form.
Because of the nature of her works, it has special meaning to her.
“Since the being is expressing something psychological,” Stichter said. “Because of the fact that I spend so much time inside them, it is meaningful to me.”
The practical side is that she can shape the figures by pushing on the internal walls to create the internal breath or internal pressure of the beings.
“The hollowing is the part everyone’s always trying to rescue me from,” said Stichter.
“They want it to be faster. But it’s an integral part of the process for me.”
Throughout the massing and hollowing, the clay is wrapped in plastic to stay wet and malleable.
Each piece of the sculpture is fired in a large kiln for five to six days at a time, at temperatures from 1760 to 2100 degrees. The clay shrinks 20 percent under the heat.
Show’s support
Overall, Stichter is grateful to be in the position she’s in. She says it’s because a lot of people have supported her in small ways.
In 2006, struggling to make a living, she applied for a grant from the Virginia Groot Foundation and received $35,000.
It gave what she sought, a year’s worth of time without pressure to sell.
In the end, she was surprised to sell all of what she created.
“Having that trust in myself to make what really excited me is what got everyone else behind it,” she said of her subsequent momentum. “More than anything, I just needed time. The Groot Foundation gave me a year’s worth of time.”
Five years later, USA Artists offers another big chance.
The organization gains funding from small donations from average citizens, or micro-philanthropy. They have chosen to host Stichter’s current project on their web site, UnitedStates Artists.org. So far, 115 donors have pledged support to her project.
Stichter needs a minimum $12,000 in donations by Dec. 31. She says she’ll actually need about $18,000 to launch her next show featuring the wolves which are now being created at her Garfield shop.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
Reader Comments(0)