Our Artists
www.clairebeauchampart.com Claire Beauchamp was born in Cincinnati, grew up with one foot on a bison farm in Kansas, and has since transplanted to New Orleans, Louisiana. She was part of the Tulane University Glass Studio where her interest in materiality and construction technique pulled her into an installation-based practice that often references mental health. She juxtaposes inviting textures and ethereal materials with gaunt figural portrayal, fraying edges, exposed stitching, etc. This points to a sense of unease around her own identity- simultaneously pushing away and reaching out for Midwestern roots. This is especially poignant at a time when there is so much disgust for the behavior fostered by patriarchal, white, rural America. Beauchamp's current work focuses on the ways in which femininity and womanhood intersect with our changing landscapes. In New Orleans Beauchamp has shown work at the Contemporary Arts Center, Carroll Gallery, Parse Gallery, Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center, among others. www.Williamdepauw.net William DePauw received his BFA in Painting from Northern Michigan University in 1996 and his MFA in Ceramics from Tulane University in 2004. He has held the position of Professor of Practice and Ceramics Lab Tech in the Newcomb Art Department at since 2006. Depauw’s creative practice, broadly speaking, is based on the observation of objects as abstract form. Inversely, He is interested in how inherent references to the familiar or material place objects into contexts, histories, and various other narratives. His work explores the contradictory relationship between image and object, form and reference. The pieces displayed in the gallery are part of a larger series worked on from 2010 until 2014. They are three dimensional collages constructed from mold formed porcelain. www.sarahhouse.net My works stem from a love and fascination with the natural world, particularly the self-similar patterns known as fractals. Through ceramic sculpture I explore the ubiquitous nature and similar appearance fractals share throughout nature. The patterns of choppy water resemble those of mountains as well as melting ice. A river system branches in the same way as the branching patterns of our nervous system and lungs. Fractals are the patterns by which the universe has organized itself. Noticing them fills me with a profound feeling of interconnection with nature in all its facets and forms. In making works inspired from this theme, I hope to instill the same sense of awe and wonder in my viewer. I will be successful when my audience then notices these patterns all around them, and feels they are connected to something greater than themselves. In E.O. Wilson’s Biophilia, the author reminds the modern reader that the long evolution of homo sapien occurred within an environment we have only very recently differentiated as “nature”. In the 100,000 years since our species emerged on the Savannahs, it has only been the last 100 that we have begun to concentrate our populations into cities. Biophilia is the evolutionary imprint that “nature” has had on our genome – it is our urge to affiliate with other life forms. It is our LOVE OF LIFE. My ceramic work is a consequence of this evolutionary and biological urge. As a newcomer to New Orleans I have found it difficult to navigate the Southern Louisiana wilds. Alligators, venomous snakes, stinging caterpillars and flesh eating bacteria are all new species to me. In preparation for a carving I pour over natural history books, wildlife guides, and scientific illustrations to cull visual information and as a result begin to metabolize the biological systems of this place. It is through this cultivation of intimacy with flora and fauna that I enjoy fuller embodiment of my human-ness. Recently snakes have occupied a particular place in this process as I more deeply plumb the medicine it makes available to me. There are countless journalists, scientists, psychologists, and conservationists publishing on the salubrious effects conservation and intimacy with “nature” has on our physical, emotional and spiritual health. Creating these tributes to the sanctity of this intimacy (and donating a significant percent of my proceeds to wildlife conservation and sustainability) allows me to simulate this relationship in our urban environment. www.postmedium.com/laurarichens Laura Richens is an exhibiting artist, working primarily on paper, in printmaking, drawing, and hand-made books, exhibiting in various group exhibitions and projects, some under the imprint of her Vanishing Point Press. Her exhibitions include various group shows at the CAC, Delgado Community College, NOCCA, SUNO, Loyola University, Tall Grass Arts Association (Park Forest, IL), Coastal Carolina University (SC), Barrister’s Gallery, Antenna Gallery, The Front, Zeitgeist, the Brooklyn Lyceum, the Bereznitsky Gallery in Berlin, Germany, and the Mermaid Lounge. Laura is also the Curator of the Carroll Gallery in the Newcomb Art Department of Tulane University. She teaches two classes in the art department each year -- Visual Arts in New Orleans, and the Senior Studio Art Capstone – and serves as the faculty advisor to the Tulane Art Club. She has previously worked as the Assistant Curator of Visual Arts at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, and as Registrar of the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Laura received her BA in Studio Art at Rhodes College, and her MA in Art History at the University of Memphis. Her direct trace monotypes are from Symbiosis, a series of prints and drawings (many of them in pairs), a fanciful look at the interdependence of creatures in the web of all living things. The various forms of symbiosis – that which benefits both participants (mutualism), that which benefits one partner but does not harm the other (commensalism), and that of a parasite/host (parasitism); the creative adaptations that beings undergo to survive in their environment -- Are these relationships mirrored in the human world? The linoleum prints shown here are illustrations created for a book entitled Watch Your Trees, a collection of poems by the late Sarah Doerries, full of verbal imagery from South Louisiana. Laura interpreted these poems in the light of her love of the natural landscape, its diverse inhabitants, and their endless interactions and adaptations. Erica Nellie Smith is a Louisiana native and graduate from Southeastern University where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2012. She had a focus in printmaking and taught herself paper making and bookbinding while there. While managing an art supply retail space she has enjoyed experimenting with other materials and trying different bookbinding processes. the books are created with the needs of an artist in mind, providing different paper types and appealing decorative covers, as well as a flat laying binding. Her prints are primarily linocuts and inspired by natural elements, some of which have found their way onto the books. www.jennaturner.net Jenna Turner was born and raised in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. She graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2011 and went on to complete artist residencies at Medalta in Medicine Hat, AB and at Red Deer College. In 2014 Jenna received her Master of Fine Arts degree from Tulane University and taught ceramics for two consecutive years. In 2015 Jenna traveled to South Korea to attend the Gyeonggi International Ceramics Biennial where she was an exhibiting artist and presenter. Most recently, Jenna received an Alberta Foundation for the Arts Individual Project Grant to return to Medalta and complete a year-long artist residency and exhibition. www.tchoupindustries.com Tchoup Industries’ mission is to build bags that support our Southern Louisiana community, that have a reduced impact on our natural environment, and that instill a spirit of exploration. Exploring is about being curious for knowledge in a physically active way. We believe an explorative spirit can provide opportunities for understanding and conscious self-awareness. Through building durable packs and travel bags, it is our goal to inspire a sense of exploration in everyone. We are passionate about using the synergies and resources of our thriving local community to produce relevant, socially-conscious products. We are fully aware of the catastrophic effects of oil on our natural environment in Southern Louisiana. This is why we opt to use as many repurposed, natural, and eco-conscious materials as possible to create our products. |