Artist Feature: Beth Cavener Stichter
"...awkward edges between animal and human."
Many of the Artist Features on NAILED aim to connect our readers with the serious matters we face as part of being human; self-esteem, sex, feminism, body issues, mental health conditions, religion, fear, pleasure, racism, misunderstanding. Usually depicted through human subjects. Clay sculptor, Beth Cavener Stichter has a unique approach to the artistic expression of the emotional human experience, through animals.
“I select animal subjects since the animal body is removed just enough from my own to establish a distance, yet the personal relationship is irresistible. Here, I become far enough away from myself to unravel questions previously tangled in a self-conscious quagmire.”
Her creatures seem to embody the same consequences as humans, yet they are cloaked in animal skin. “Beneath they are experiencing the impacts of aggression, territorial desires, isolation, pack mentality . . . I want to pry at those uncomfortable, awkward edges between animal and human.”
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Beth is currently a full-time professional studio artist working in the state of Montana. She received her BA in sculpture from Haverford College and her MFA from Ohio State University. She has received several fellowships and awards since 2004. She has exhibited nationally (at such institutions as the Smithsonian Museum) and internationally and has taught numerous workshops across the country. She is currently represented by Clark + DelVecchio in Santa Fe, NM and has just recently embarked on creating a group professional studio space under the name Studio 740 in Helena, MT.