I'm speaking with Colette Bernard, who is a Class of '21 sculpture major and performance minor at Pratt Institute. We talk about her long history of artistry, her technical explorations, art in Southern Louisiana, and growth.
This interview was conducted at WPIR's station on March 8, 2020.
I: Welcome, everybody, to Dezign Skool, where I interview a different person in a different major every week about what it is we do here, and why. We are live streaming this on my guest Colette’s Instagram, if anyone is interested in getting a visual, which is @artistcolette. Colette, you can go ahead and introduce yourself. Who are you? What do you do?
C: My name is Colette Bernard. I'm a second semester junior here at Pratt Institute. I'm a sculpture major. Minor in performance, kind of? It's weird. I haven't gotten confirmation.
I: But you’ve applied.
C: Yeah.
I: Okay, that completely makes sense, knowing a little bit about your work. So, I know you originally from meeting at a Program Board function, essentially. It was a conference for campus event planners, which is really funny. When I tell people about the fact that this exists, they're shocked there's a world of that.
C: Yeah, I was really involved in the upstate campus’ Programming Board, which coordinates events for the campus, and I was the president for my sophomore year there. So fun fact, Pratt has a second campus in Utica, New York, which I had the very awesome and rare experience of going to. And I met Isabel there, not at campus but at that Programming Board function.
I: Which was such an interesting experience. So the MWP program is two years, and then you transfer to Brooklyn. So meeting you guys and hearing about everything you've been doing in just two years… it's tricky because you're not there very long, and to establish a repertoire of this organization must be difficult…
C: And that's what I’m experiencing at the Brooklyn campus, too. It's a strange situation where I'm getting a four year degree from one institution. But I've been to two different campuses that are very far apart from each other. In distance and culture. The upstate campus has 200 students total and I met some of my closest friends there, and I had a lot of first experiences of being an adult and living on my own. And you know, being in the middle of nowhere. But there's also this huge art scene in upstate New York. New York City has its own art scene but in upstate New York it's completely different, especially for sculpture and ceramics.
I: How so?
C: For example, we went on a field trip called “Quest for Light.” Dan Buckingham, who was my professor in upstate New York, has been doing this for 25 years now. He gets a van and for all spring break, we go to two museums a day.
I: That must be exhausting. Imagine that museum fatigue…
C: Yeah, I’d be like, “Oh, we’re in Ohio now? Cool” It’s like a 10 day, sculpture intensive van trip. It's called “Quest for Light” because we're moving towards Alfred University where we learned neon.
I: That is the coolest name for the coolest trip I've ever heard.
C: Yeah, Dan Buckingham is the dude. He’s the reason my art is the way it is.
I: Did you have him your first year and your second year? How did that work? When did you meet him?
C: Both years. Yeah, I had him second semester freshman year. And that's why I decided to change my major to sculpture. I came in as graphic design. But one thing I wanted to mention was that upstate New York has a very big glassblowing and ceramics scene, even sculpture in general. There's a huge like, cult out there that I love. Yeah. But yeah, I was a graphic design major. You can still kind of see that in my work a little bit. I was really obsessed with graphic design for a while. But I realized I was not supposed to go down that route.
I: Yeah, your work is very graphic. Despite being fine art. It's very bold.
C: It's controversial for those reasons. Obviously I like it because it's my art. One of my biggest critiques I get is it’s borderline Art-Pop-y. Because I'm infatuated with cleanness –– and I say that with air quotes, because that's kind of an aggressive term ––
I: Cleanness, but not minimalism, right?
C: Exactly.
I: It's just very straightforward. Maybe that has a negative connotation, but it still has layers.
C: I sometimes get crap for this, but there's a lot of humor in my work, a lot of one liners. So one thing I've been focusing on this semester in particular is trying to get away from that, being less one-line-y. I personally don't think that fine art always has to be this big, fucking mystery. To me –– and maybe this is just me being ignorant –– but whenever something is too complicated, it can push me away. Sometimes it can be a little snooty, in my opinion, or just a mess. To me it’s less impactful because I don't know what the hell you're talking about. And then I can’t relate at all, because I can't pull anything from this. I like to pull from well known images…
I: Like shared experience?
C: Yeah, in a way. I did a performance of like a rock wall, and all the rocks were sweetheart candies with witty sayings on them.
I: It was kind of cynical.
C: Absolutely. And that’s a recurring theme of humor and my work. I always try to kind of think about how I can make this a more tangible thing for other people, too. We all know that those candies usually say some dumb shit.
I: The canon of those boxes is so strange. Like, who talks like this? Who's the person writing these?
C: Because it's this company trying to appeal to a younger audience. I think it’s kind of funny.
I: They've definitely updated them. Now I want to dive into the history of the sweethearts candies.
C: Even though they're literally chalk, they are still bangers. You could use them on a chalkboard. If someone tries that, I want to know if it works.
I: So before we really dive in,
I want to know a little bit about sculpture as it pertains to Pratt. How would you describe the major here?
What does it consist of? What is it that you guys do?
C: I've had a really good experience. Being that I went to the Upstate campus, I have a different approach to it. Yeah, so I'm not sure about the other students who have started on Brooklyn campus and finish here. At the Upstate Campus, I had one semester freshman year that was very, very minimal. But I fell in love with the professor and how he taught. And I actually had an experience in high school where I was an intern at a glassblowing studio in New Orleans. That also had metal, ceramics, and stained glass. It was like my first time dipping my toe into sculpture. And then it crept back up on me freshman year and was like, “you actually want to do this forever.” And then I actually taught at that same studio this past summer. Metal, sculpture.
I: What's the name of the studio?
C: New Orleans Glassworks. I'm really tight with all of them. Jeannie Blair took me under her wing. She's this badass old lady. I don't even know how old she was because she won't tell me. But she’s this really old lady, she's not afraid to say that. She runs like five miles every morning. She wears two red bows in her hair every day, crazy t-shirts, those shoes with the wings on them… every day. That's her uniform. I love her. She took me under her wing when I was 15. She really saw something in me and I went to that studio as a camper for summer camp, and I left as an intern.
I: Yeah, that's awesome.
C: But okay, my experience with Pratt sculpture: I changed my major freshman year and I got closer with Professor Dan Buckingham. And then sophomore year was like, “alright, we're gonna drill all these skills into you. You are going to come knowing nothing and by the time you leave PrattMWP, you're going to be hireable.” And that's what happened. Welding, woodworking, mold making, and then finally exploring concepts for the first time in the spring semester.
I: So they kind of gave you the tools to fulfill your ideas, and then they're like, okay… now!
C: Yes, it was very, like, “we're not going to talk about ideas at all, because if you can't make anything, then how are you going to communicate? Do the conceptual stuff in your writing classes.” For all of sophomore year, we just learned how to make.
I: What were your assignments like that semester? Since they were like, “your ideas are not a part of this,” what did you make?
C: For Woodworking 1, we made a chair. I had to learn how to use the bandsaw, the table saw , the jigsaw, how to file things correctly… all the nitty gritty things. And then like mold making was like, “okay, you have 10 minutes to go find an object and we're gonna make a mold out of it.” Those are the tech classes, here at Pratt Institute. It's literally just technical, there's no concept involved. So the second semester of sophomore year at MWP, we doubled down in concept to prepare for junior year. Now, sculpture, as a junior, class is literally all concept. I have Analia Segal, she’s wonderful, but she doesn't teach me how to make things.
I: So did you have a foundation year?
C: Yes. Everyone at the Upstate campus has the same schedule freshman year, unless you’re photography.
I: Even though you weren’t necessarily in graphic design yet, how did you pick up from those classes that sculpture is what you wanted to do?
C: It just dawned on me that I was really pouring my heart into my sculpture homework. It was called 3D process. The names change, and we’re a year apart. They also have switched the curriculum a little bit. I just remember being like, “I don't want to work in front of a computer.” I'm really good with my hands and I'm not that great of an illustrator. I like to illustrate for fun, but the idea of doing it to get paid… I was like, “I'm gonna hate my life.” And I was telling myself like, “you're going to this university that cost you like $100,000, you have to come out of here marketable. You need to do graphic design because you need to get hired by a firm, and make money and whatever…” But you know what? I've always been a hustler. I'm gonna make this shit work. I've worked since I was 14 years old. I'm gonna figure it the fuck out. If I'm in debt my whole life, I’ll figure it out.
I: You absolutely won't be.
C: If anybody listening would like to make a $100,000 donation…Just kidding. Where's my small loan of a million dollars?
I: All right, so you sort of answered this, but I'm asking everyone what it was that directly pointed them to this field. And it sounds like that was that internship/camp that you had, and the influence of that woman that sort of took you under your wing. Was there any moment, even before then?
How early do you remember thinking, “I want to construct things?”
C: Well, the first person who influenced me was my mom. My mom stayed home to raise me, which I'm very thankful for. She was the first person to put a paintbrush in my hand and said, “there's no wrong answer, have fun.” I remember very specifically, I had a friend come over one day and she set us up to paint. And the little girl was like, “Well, what do I do first?” And I remember thinking, “What do you mean? Anything you want?” I was five years old. Yeah. But it's my mom who taught me. My family's always been very supportive of me being in the arts, because my grandfather's actually a very famous Swamp Pop musician.
I: Swamp Pop?
C: It's the folk music of South Louisiana. He has a gold record, he was on American Bandstand. He was making some moves. And then he went into the radio world, he's very successful. And my dad, his son, is a very active and well known South Louisiana historian and author. He has six or seven published books. I’m such a bad daughter. I don't know the number. He's been featured in New York Times. My dad's out there with writing. And then here I am. I've always had this like understanding in my family that this can be a job. Get the bills, do your thing. In elementary school I tested into this program called the Townsend Visual Arts Program, it's like the gifted program but for the arts. You would get pulled out of your normal classes for an hour every week, and have one on one time with a professional in the fine arts.
I: Only an hour, wow.
C: Yeah, the South is awful. But people don't want to increase taxes and that means we don't get awesome education systems like other states. That's how you pay for that shit.
I: So what years was this that you were in that program?
C: I tested in during the third or fourth grade. It’s kind of like an intelligence test.
I: Like, creative intelligence, specifically?
C: Yeah, I remember one of the tests I had to take was, “draw a red balloon. And they only gave me a pencil.”
I: This sounds like a riddle.
C: Exactly. That's how the gifted program tests people. Actually, they tested me to get into the gifted program later in high school and it was literally like, “how do you make an envelope wet?” And I was like, “Huh?” It was literally riddles. But the “answer” for the red balloon question was that you shaded in with the pencil. I got it. But it's like if your brain works a certain way. It's kind of like an IQ test. And you had to turn in a portfolio. So my dad like, had me like, draw Microsoft Paint. I remember my dad printing it out and saying, “this is gonna wow them.” And when I got to high school they offered it every day. It was aside from the regular art classes, kind of like Advanced Placement. And it was weird because the regular art class… I don't even know if that teacher had an art degree. But that’s actually how they marketed the program, in a way, like, “This teacher has a master's in art!” But it always boils down to like the south just not caring about education. It sucks. But so I got to take it every day in high school. Kathy Reed mentored me in high school every day. I was in her class until I graduated. I had enough credits senior year to not need an elective, but I willingly took her class again because I adored her. I think it was first semester, junior year, maybe second semester sophomore year, I was telling her how science is not going great for me. But I was sure I wanted to be a forensic scientist when I grew up.
I: Forensic Science is one of the most fascinating classes I ever took. I'm glad I did.
C: Yeah. But shit started to get real, and she said to me, “for someone who wants to be like a forensic scientist, where you have to do all this again in college, you don't sound like someone who wants to do this.” She's said, “you double booked my class. You're taking two hours of art every day when you only have to take one. You could be using that other elective to take that forensics class our school offers.” And I was like, “oh.” And in that moment, I became an artist.
I: That was the defining moment.
C: That was it.
I: Seems pretty logical to me.
C: From that moment forward, I was like, “can you help me build my portfolio for college?” And she was like, “yep. But it's not gonna be fun.” I said, “cool. Let's do it.” Yeah, that's how I got into Pratt.
I: Wow. So you really did have an exact moment. I mean, I think there are a lot of little moments that happen, but… wow.
I'm gonna switch up the formula just a little bit with a game called “Swipe Right, Swipe Left.” It's a quick “yay or nay.” Left is no, right is an approval.
Some of these might be very straightforward and easy. First one: glassblowing.
C: Oh, definitely. Yeah, that's so fascinating. Look up neon bending.
I: Is that in the same realm?
C: Yeah, I would say so. In my next podcast I actually interviewed my friend James Akers, he's a neon fabricator here in New York City.
I: What's the name of your podcast? Where can I listen?
C: Clout Podcast. It's on Apple and Spotify. It’s also on instagram @cloutpodcast. My podcast is actually the exact same thing we're doing right now, where I interview young artists.
I: Awesome. The next one has two sides: hand building vs wheel throwing.
C: Both.
I: So, we’re in Wheel Throwing together. But you've been doing it since your sophomore year?
C: Bryan McGrath taught me at the upstate campus in Utica. It was crazy intense. I mean, we centered for a month straight.
I: We kind of did that here, too.
C: Yeah. But at this campus, [our professor] was like, “if you feel like you got it, you got it.” But yeah, Brian was like, “No, you will not move forward until I say so. I see anybody pulling pots before I say, I'm gonna break ‘em.” But, ceramics is awesome. Also Greg Giegucz taught me the first things I ever knew about handbuilding. He’s a New Orleans artist.
I: When was that?
C: I think I was 15. In my internship, I would sneak over there and build stuff sometimes.
I: So you really do have a storied past with ceramics.
C: I do. That's why freshman year was so conflicting for me.
I: This next one is fuck marry kill. This might be more difficult: wood, metal and ceramics.
C: Okay, definitely kill metal because… it scares me so much while I'm doing it that I can’t enjoy it. I taught it all summer and it drove me fucking insane. I taught at the same glassblowing studio that I interned at. I came back as a “professor” for the summer camp. The kids are like 8 to 12, sometimes older if they're on the autism spectrum. So it was really fun like getting to teach younger people something so scary as metal…
I: Yeah that seems very ––
C: –– dangerous!
I: –– High risk, for sure!
C: I was the only one really worried about that. I had two two co-workers who were jackasses. If y'all are listening… love ya, but. I was the mom of the studio. It was interesting teaching younger kids something so dangerous. Some of them would be so scared but then other ones would be like, “Whoa, this is not bad, it's my favorite course now.” and I was like, “yeah!” cuz they go to three different classes a day. Oh, fuck. I would definitely fuck wood because it's been reliable. No, marry wood.
I: You want to wife that one up.
C: I actually work in the woodshop here at Pratt. It's always been recurring in my work, maybe not directly in sculpture. But, like, I built my own fabric stretcher. It's a very useful skill to have if you're in Fine Arts, even if you're not a sculpture major. If there's any class I could recommend: definitely woodworking. It will come into your life in one way or another. I would fuck ceramics. I have a weird relationship with ceramics because I'm very tactile. Touching shit is weird for me. Some days I'm like, “if my fingernail scrapes that dry clay, I'm gonna cry.” It's reverse ASMR.
I: I can definitely relate to that. That’s similar to sounds, for me. The tactility of it combined with the sound, I’m in heaven, I don't know what it is. It’s a great feeling. And other days, the dry clay and the bats…
C: Yeah, it can be the worst time. It actually makes me want to keep going for longer, because I don’t want to clean.
I: Ceramics is very sensual. So it definitely makes sense that that's the “fuck.”
C: Yeah. It's so orgasmic whenever you glaze your items… and then you pull them out of the kiln and they're shiny. That's literal cum.
I: Yeah, this could be its own conversation. “Talk about the orgasmic nature of ceramics.” Okay, the next one is –– Oh, this is topical because of your shirt ––
C: It says “Storm King Art Center” on it.
I: So the Met, the Met Breuer, and Storm King: fuck, marry, kill.
C: I've never been to the Met Breuer. Because I've only lived in New York City now since last August. But I actually did live here in the summertime between freshman and sophomore year because I didn't feel like moving all my shit back to Louisiana. But that being said… I have been to a lot of museums in the city, but not the small ones that. I have been to the Cloisters.
I: Oh, let's substitute that in, then.
C: I would definitely fuck the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's really satisfying to go and look at historic pieces and pull things from them… it's very meditative in a way.
I: I think everything you ever need to know about sculpture and art is literally right there. All of human history is in that building.
C: I definitely marry Storm King Art Center. My super long term goal is to start my own Sculpture Park. If ever die one day please just start a sculpture park. Don’t buy a bench or something. Even just like the corner of a park that already exists. Starting a sculpture park is a bigger goal of mine, I would love to do that one day. I really want to own my own business. I don't think I could work for someone else the rest of my life. Yeah, I'm too much of a hustler.
I: You have a very independent attitude. You know what you want.
C: Hell yeah, girl. I’m getting them coins. I’m working. And what was the last one? Oh, kill the Cloisters because the trek up that hill is deadly. You have to walk up this huge hill, like at the corner of New York City… it almost felt like I wasn't in the city after a while. It's like just a random hill, surrounded by the city… It's so weird. It's a castle in New York City. I don't know where I was, I don't know how to get up there. The treck makes it not worth it. But I saw the fashion exhibit there last summer, it's really good. They have the tapestry of a unicorn.
I: All the merch and all the advertisements feature the unicorn.
C: It's beautiful though if you ever want to go on a date. It's kind of outdoorsy at the same time. But it's a whole day thing. You can't go for an hour and leave.
I: Have you ever been to the Frick Collection?
C: No. I have so much on my list!
I: Definitely seek that one out too. It's a gorgeous building and yeah, they also kind of have this greenspace in the center of it all. Okay, I have a couple rapid-fire New York City ones. Noguchi: swipe right, swipe left?
C: Right. I really appreciate what he has to say. I'm pretty sure he's a biracial American citizen. I hate mentioning this, but I just got a long term relationship with someone who was biracial, half white, half Asian American, and a lot of his work reminds me of him, and things that I think a lot of biracial people in America are facing. Identity. So he's very, very important here.
I: The next one is Robert Indiana. Do you know very much about him?
C: He did the “LOVE” sculpture.
I: Yeah, that's one he's very famous one.
C: I fuck with it, but it’s a little overplayed.
I: It’s become uber-present.
C: I think that 20 years ago, great idea. Yeah, but today, with how much corporate businesses like to dabble in the art world to make “selfie spots...”
I: Yeah, if that was made now, it would have a completely different meaning…
C: Imagine taking a picture with your like film camera, you know, when were those sculptures made? The 80s? But that being said, I mean, taking a picture with your film camera, with your family, you're on a road trip, whatever….
I: Oh, it was 1970.
C: Oh, yeah. I took a picture with my family in Philadelphia with one of them and it just… changes. I feel like art ages with technology, unfortunately. Back then, awesome.
I: If it was made today, it would be really different. It's become so historical. It’s strange how it’s now 50 years old. The next one is Sol Lewitt.
C: There's this piece at the Munson Williams Proctor Art Institute in upstate New York. It’s very cube-y. I appreciate it. If there's anything you need to know about my practice or what I prefer: I'm very like technical. I'm very into digital fabrication and mixing the arts with the internet… So, I always get crap for this, but people will be naming legendary sculptors and I'm like, “yeah, that work’s boring. Sorry.” It's important to know it though. I don't believe in doing this shit where you're completely oblivious to art history just because you don't like it. But I'm definitely not influenced by people like that, you know what I mean? But they're still important to celebrate.
I: Well, Sol Lewitt makes conceptual art. It's taking a simple idea and executing it in a way. Most of what's important is the viewer’s thoughts about it. I think that's actually kind of similar to what you are all about,
C: I agree. One thing we learned about in sculpture history –– This always blows my mind, I mention on my podcast like every episode –– who you're friends with in the art world can be so mind blowing. Because 100 years from now, someone could be making a documentary about you and be like, “oh, and they were friends with this person” or “Colette and Isabel actually filmed together.” I didn't know this but Sol Lewitt and Eva Hesse had a relationship. I was watching a documentary about her and her work and they mentioned her relationship with Sol and I was like: hold up. I thought they were on different sides of the world. With art history, I'm really bad with numbers and dates. So I mix up who is where and when and stuff. But oh, these people were friends! Like Michelangelo and Da Vinci were in the same building.
I: Do you have a favorite piece of public art in New York City?
C: A more recent one I really enjoyed was Kehinde Wiley. He did the portraits of the Obamas. He also did the sculpture of a black man on a horse. It was in Time Square for a while, it's in the style of a colonialist... It’s very controversial, obviously to sensitive-ass white people. But yeah, I really enjoy that piece, especially as a southern artist, creating art today. For Southern people, especially –– well, not just for Southern people. It's for everybody. But there are certain jabs that I take at my Southern culture, because I'm still un-learning a lot of things that I was brought up thinking were true. There are so many Confederate statues, and I'll have family members who are like, “Oh, but you can't erase history!” But contextualizing it is important. Like, why the fuck are there statues everywhere, especially on the black side of town?
I: Like what is it that we're celebrating with this?
C: Exactly, yeah. It just makes me mad. My hometown is New Iberia, Louisiana. It's a very, very small town. There's this mural that went up recently, my dad sent me a picture… it’s in the middle of downtown, only a few blocks away from the highest concentration of black people in New Iberia. And it's all white colonizers, who developed the plantation home that's a mile away from the mural. There’s this meeting place in the downtown area, it’s where we do this thing called a Fais do-do. It's a meeting where there's live music, and food. Festivals are very big in South Louisiana. And in this fucking public pavilion, they've made this mural where there's no fucking black people. It was apparently made by some girl scouts, which you know, whatever. It’s a full-scale mural, but the only black people on the mural are the size of your hand, whereas the white people are full-bodied, six feet tall. It's like a black marching band in the corner. You could tell someone was like “where's the black people?”
I: Like an afterthought.
C: Yeah. But it's depicting times like in the past in New Iberia. The Shadows-on-the-Teche plantation home pictured, and it depicts how the sugar industry was booming, but there are no slaves in the picture. How can you argue “you can erase history” for the statues but then put this mural up today? Really? This is exactly what I'm talking about when sometimes my art gets labeled as “antique feminism” or “dated…” but where I'm from, we’re way more behind than somewhere like New York. We're not fighting the same battles. People where I'm from are still getting used to the idea of desegregation. It's still systematic. We have something called the “schools of choice” where it's supposed to promote the mixing of schools. So, the kids in the poor neighborhoods can go to the nicer schools, the academies, where they have the health or the science programs. But then people end up faking their addresses so their kids can stay in the white neighborhood. Racism is still such a prominent thing in the south. Trump feeds it. And I can't see a mural like that and say, “Oh, it's just Girl Scouts.”
I: It’s deeply embedded. It’s a much bigger problem than the mural.
C: Yeah, absolutely. I just did a mural!
I: Yeah! So one of my questions is about a current or past passion project. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?
C: Yeah, so, I went home for winter break, and it’s usually me going home and having nothing to do. I decided I want to do a mural. I emailed the downtown Development Authority, I already had a contact with them because I was trying to do like a pop-up installation in Parc Sans Souci in Lafayette, Louisiana. That ended up falling through for liability reasons. We just couldn't get insurance covered, because I wanted to do something people could climb on. It just fell through. But I messaged that same person and was like, “Hey, I really want to do a mural. Here's my illustration, I've been doing these for fun in my sketchbook, let me know if you're interested.” and they responded and they were like, “we're really interested. Let us try and connect you with someone we think this would be a good fit for, on their building.” And the Children's Museum was like, “hell yeah.” If you've seen the mural, if you haven't, go on my Instagram page, @artistcolette. It's very diverse. I wanted to represent all shades of people. Black, white, Hispanic, Asian… I did that through my illustration. Some people you can't really tell what gender they are. This person looks like Grandma, this person looks like our neighbor. I just wanted to make it as diverse as possible. It's kind of like I Spy. That was a more recent project just for myself, not for school. They gave me a grant for all the supplies and stuff. I volunteered my time because I literally was like, “I'm coming home. I'm doing nothing, please. I would like a project.” And so that that's like a forever mark of mine on my hometown.
I: Anyone can walk by it and see it.
C: Yeah, I was like, “You know what, and fuck your racist mural!”
I: This was like a direct response. And your sketches came from your sketchbook, are they real people you've observed?
C: Yeah, some of them are people I've actually seen, some are from my head. I'm not really an illustrator. It's really just for fun. I'm all for artists making art for fun, it doesn't have to be this big conceptual mess every time you make something. There's a fine artist listening to this right now and rolling their eyes.
I: There's room for everything. One thing I want to ask: what’s something you're learning about, or fascinated with recently?
C: I've gotten a lot more into digital fabrication. I took a semester of Rhino, which is a Computer Aided Design program, last semester. So I've gotten a lot into 3d printing, laser cutting, I just learned CNC… I just applied for an internship this summer that's a residency for that, too. I'm really interested in tech and Fine Arts. Yeah. Let's let's just rapid fire into these.
I: This is the biggest question. I want to know if there's like one particular piece of work, one particular piece of art that really impacted you growing up. Maybe even led you to think this is something I want to do.
C: Oh, you talked about your mentor. Is there like a particular work of hers that you witnessed her working on?
I: Oh, actually she's not my mentor. Her name is Gracelee Lawrence.
C: Oh, separate. Yes. I mixed up their names.
I: But yeah, Gracelee. She is a fine art sculptor. You can look her up on Instagram [@gleeleelawlee]. So at the Upstate campus at MWP we were walking distance from a residency called Sculpture Space. We volunteered there, and I would just walk over there and just see what's up sometimes. And this resident Gracelee Lawrence wasn't there, but I was looking at her art, like “Who the fuck made this?” It was this 3d printed, realistic pomegranate, but it was maybe like four feet wide. It was huge. And it had a little belly button. There was also this asparagus that looked like two fingers walking… Oh, it was so interesting. And I just could not figure out how she made it. And how it was so smooth. And that's the thing about sophomore year: I really dove into process. Who made this? How'd they do it? I need to talk to them. The artists explained to me that she's actually in New York City doing a spring break art show, but she’ll come back, and to message her. And I did! She said “come on down, I'll be back on this day.” We met, and I found out that you can use 3D printing with sculpture. I never even thought about that. That’s when I was set on taking a CAD class. I was like, “the possibilities are endless if I can just learn this software.” She emphasizes women in tech in the fine arts, and not being scared of these processes. And there's a lot of controversy behind using 3D printing in sculpture because it's “cheating…”
I: I think it's just another tool. You know, in any CAD program you are literally sculpting. It's just another process that you know.
C: Yeah. And it’s one thing if you’re just using filament, but you can also layer things on top of it, you can put plaster on it, you can put fiberglass… That’s actually how I made the heart rockwall, I 3D-printed the hearts with the text, then I put silicone on top, made a mold, and cast them in plastic. It feels like an actual rock wall. Those things are like, indestructible. But yeah, she really rocked my world. And Dan Buckingham is very important. I've already mentioned him. He was my mentor and like my professor at the Upstate campus. He taught me a lot about using text in sculpture, and doing research, and the importance of art history in your work. And if you look at his work, you can see a direct relation to mine. Yeah, for sure.
I: The last thing I'm going to ask you –– and this can be a quick answer, but I really want to know ––
Since entering Pratt, how do you feel as though you have changed, both as an artist and as a person?
C: I've mentioned a lot of stuff involving being Southern, and race…. I have had to unlearn a lot of the culture that has brought me up. Yeah, I consider myself more liberal. Compared to most New Yorkers, I'm more in the middle. But compared to people back home, I'm ultra ultra liberal. Because I'm from somewhere very conservative. So that being said, I've definitely had a lot of personal growth with understanding sensitivity. I've definitely made comments in the past that have just been flat out insensitive, or I think I'm being funny and I'm not… I have a really bad habit of like, speaking in riddles or making analogies for things and people are like, “oh, that's not funny.” But yeah, I don't believe in “cancel culture.” I think no one learns from that. I have definitely been, like, burned at the stake a few times. People are on fire here about social shit, and I love it. I love the enthusiasm. I love that people give a fuck here. It’s so refreshing compared to where I'm from, where people just don't care about other people. That's why I love New York. That's why I'm here. I want to be a part of this community. But it doesn’t happen overnight. I will continue to mess up, I will continue to fall on my face… as long as I get back up tell myself “I will work on this” I will be better, and I will not do or say certain things. The biggest way I’ve grown is understanding that because of where I was raised, I'm inherently going to act certain ways. And I think that's actual feminism: recognizing that and saying “how can I bring that back home and help other people.” And that’s not to say I have tolerance for that slowness in my growth. But you can try arguing with anybody about their morals, it's not an overnight process. It's taken me a while to be, “oh, where I grew up was fucked.”
I: Well, that's good. I think everyone's going through that process in one way or another. But yeah, thank you so much for coming on!
C: Thank you!