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Cathy Gerson
"I draw with volume, never with lines—they are too confining. It's the push and pull of things that has always fascinated me—how one shape informs the negative and positive space. "
As she begins her ceramic pieces, Cathy Gerson works like a sculptor, drawing from the inside out, using volume to build the structure, shading out a rough design, and enclosing it in lines. Tile works form the canvas for sculpted forms accented with unique, personal glazes and whimsical touches including architectural and totemic forms. In each piece, Gerson explores the freedom that clay allows, defying two dimensions.
First, she focuses on the design, with sensitivity toward the sculpted shapes. She builds her pieces by rolling out stoneware clay in a slab, then cutting and shaping each tile by hand. Next, Gerson glazes and colors the tiles before assembling and grouting them into her final composition. The finished piece is then mounted on wood, aluminum, steel, or Plexiglas.
Cathy Gerson studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and at the Moore College of Art in Philadelphia. From 1973 to 1976, she worked out of her studio in Jamaica Plain, MA. From 1976 to 2013, she operated her studio in a country barn adjacent to her home in Southborough, MA. In early 2013, Gerson made a monumental move with clay and kilns to her new studio and workshop in Barnardsville, NC.
As she begins her ceramic pieces, Cathy Gerson works like a sculptor, drawing from the inside out, using volume to build the structure, shading out a rough design, and enclosing it in lines. Tile works form the canvas for sculpted forms accented with unique, personal glazes and whimsical touches including architectural and totemic forms. In each piece, Gerson explores the freedom that clay allows, defying two dimensions.
First, she focuses on the design, with sensitivity toward the sculpted shapes. She builds her pieces by rolling out stoneware clay in a slab, then cutting and shaping each tile by hand. Next, Gerson glazes and colors the tiles before assembling and grouting them into her final composition. The finished piece is then mounted on wood, aluminum, steel, or Plexiglas.
Cathy Gerson studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and at the Moore College of Art in Philadelphia. From 1973 to 1976, she worked out of her studio in Jamaica Plain, MA. From 1976 to 2013, she operated her studio in a country barn adjacent to her home in Southborough, MA. In early 2013, Gerson made a monumental move with clay and kilns to her new studio and workshop in Barnardsville, NC.
