SUSAN FREDA

Susan Freda
[1996, Sculpture]

Based in Warren, RI

Susan’s RISD Craft Gallery

Transparency, form, and flowing line, the play of cast shadows and light on a wall, sparkling, subtle states of being that invoke intimate, emotive responses. Freda imbues her pieces with an ephemeral presence and ability to catch and hold light and form. Created from hand woven wire and glass, her pieces envelope viewers in a seductive, entranced space. Their transparent and interconnected forms and jewel-like nature reference nature, fashion, and otherworldly phenomena.

Susan earned her MFA at the Massachusetts College of Art, following her degree at RISD. She has received numerous awards, notably a residency & exhibition at the de Young Museum & a Pollock Krasner Award.

What are some of the most important practices for your creative process?

Ritual. I love the ritual of the studio and of keeping certain hours there. Another important ritual is connecting with nature. I try to take regular walks in nature to let me mind wander and to experience nature.

How does your current creative practice tie into your time spent at RISD?

RISD was the first experience I had with having a studio and a place and time to make my work. It gave me the foundation for this practice which is integral to my life and which I use daily. The studio is a home to me and it is something I trace back to by very first studio at RISD

Tell us about some of your main sources of inspiration.

The detritus that I find in nature is something that fuels the forms, compositions, colors and the textures that I emulate in my work. I study marine botany and shell structures and plant forms on land. I also feel drawn to fashion and the expression of clothing on the body to reflect inner states of being.

Is there a work/body of work that you are particularly excited about sharing with us at RISD Craft this year?

I am creating a new body of work in porcelain. They are ocean like coraline structures that are wall mounted. They are a hybrid between bone, plant, and animal. Im very excited to explore this new material and I cant wait to show it at RISD Craft. Its always a treat to be able to get feedback on new work from people on the street.

Any recent press, exhibitions, achievements or awards you’d like to share with us?

I will be exhibiting at the NY Art Expo this year and also in the Hong Kong Art Fair. I am to be represented by 5 new US galleries this year and will be having a two person show with Allison Paschke in Feb at the Wheeler Gallery here in Prov.

To see more of Susan’s work, visit susanfredastudios.com


JB FIREWORKS

Jenine Bressner
[2001, Glass]

Based in Providence, RI

JB Fireworks’ RISD Craft Gallery

The quickest way to try to communicate with other people is by adorning ourselves with cultural signifiers. I know that my jewelry has been and continues to act as an impetus for communication between strangers. Ignitions are sparked when we take risks like wearing something unusual or talking with people unfamiliar to us. I want to see things I’ve never seen before, and I strive to make work that satisfies this wish.

What are some of the most important practices for your creative process?

Experimenting, playing, and trying to do something in a way I haven’t before enable me to maintain plasticity in my brain.

Sometimes that means actually getting lost and traveling on paths I don’t know in my own town, or combining seemingly disparate materials.

How does your current creative practice tie into your time spent at RISD?

At RISD, I realized that we could do things we previously thought were impossible. The amount of effort, challenge, failure, growth, and learning we squeezed into a few days made the outside world seem very coddled, in comparison.

I learned to look more closely at what already exists to try to improve upon it, how to better budget my time, and I learned that everything is possible.

Tell us about some of your main sources of inspiration.

Since I gave birth, my time is much more limited. Having tighter parameters around when I can work reminds me of Foundation assignments at RISD. The time I have in studio is spent making glass and textile components, and I assemble those into larger wearable pieces at home while my kid is asleep.

Color and light excite me and inform my work more than anything else right now.

Is there a work/body of work that you are particularly excited about sharing with us at RISD Craft this year?

I expect to have some glass chains (which match everything by default) and I’m especially having fun playing with color and texture in my flameworked glass and merino wool earrings!

Any recent press, exhibitions, achievements or awards you’d like to share with us?

I just got back from teaching Glass Flameworking at Snow Farm in Western Massachusetts, and my work will be featured in Facèré Gallery’s “Signs of Life” book and exhibition in Seattle this fall.

Anything else you’d like to share?

RISD CRAFT has the most stylish children and dogs of any craft sale I’ve ever seen! Thanks for being such a beautiful community.

To see more of Jenine’s work, visit instagram.com/jbfireworks


ANNA BOOTHE

Anna Boothe
[1981, Sculpture]

Based in Pennsylvania

Anna Boothe’s RISD Craft Gallery

The work I will show at RISD Craft is comprised of individually crafted, one-of-a-kind sculptural vessels, flacons, “talismans,” beads and other decorative objects. With technical inspiration taken from the late 19th C. – early 20th C. French glass-casting technique known as pate de verre, all are constructed of brilliantly colored glass elements, kiln-cast from lead crystal via the lost-wax casting process, then ground, hand-polished and assembled.

Conceptually and visually, the objects elicit a sense of history and ritual. Formally, their prompts derive from antiquity and nature. The resultant composite forms interpret symbols from a variety of sources. Prominently featured in many pieces, the hand motif represents a ubiquitous cross-cultural human tool of communication through its emblematic gestures of friendship, generosity, holding, letting go, etc.

How does your current creative practice tie into your time spent at RISD?

My experience at RISD set the foundation for my ongoing practice – through challenging and helping to develop my resolve to keep at it and pursue a life grounded in the arts. Friendships made at the time keep circling back to support and strengthen what I do now. At RISD I studied Sculpture, and combined with what I learned in the great studio and art history electives I took, I don’t think I could’ve started my career with a better critical and practical overview of what lay ahead. Several of those electives were in the Glass Department; those classes sparked a connection to the material that is now central to my work.

What are some of the most important practices for your creative process?

By practices, I’m assuming the question refers to techniques I use in fabricating my work. I cast glass using the lost wax process. All of the work is made from crushed lead crystal that gets melted in one-use molds – that which is hand or machine finished/polished and assembled. Some of the work is created using a more refined version of this process: pate de verre ( late 19th C. French casting technique that traditionally relied on the casting of colored glass powders). Other than actual art-making practices, my regular and longterm yoga practice greatly informs my hands-on and conceptual approach to how I work – mostly around patience (it’s glass! it breaks all the time!) and the intensely long and tedious process I use.

Tell us about some of your main sources of inspiration.

The work that I plan to show at RISD for the October market is inspired by iconography from a variety of cultures. Many of the objects I create are extrapolations or interpretations of Buddhist symbols and forms, as well as those from ancient Mediterranean civilizations…..and from object-memories from my travels and research. A lot of the objects are an outgrowth of a large collaborative project I’ve been involved in since 2012, initiated through a Collaborative Residency at the Corning Museum of Glass. The result of that project, “Between Seeing and Knowing” – an approx. 50′ long x 11′ high installation comprised of 300+ glass elements – has been shown at Accola Griefen Gallery in Chelsea (2013), Philadelphia Art Alliance (2017), and the Philadelphia International Airport (2018).

Any recent press, exhibitions, achievements or awards you’d like to share with us?

In addition to the current exhibit I have with my collaborative partner Nancy Cohen at the Philadelphia International Airport (through July, 2018), she and I have a collaborative exhibit opening in October at the Arts Council of Princeton (NJ). In addition I’ll be participating in 2018 Fall exhibits at the Albuequerque Museum of Art, Wayne Art Center (PA) and will be showing at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show.

To see more of Anna’s work, visit annaboothe.com