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Cindy Gibson | Episode 251
Cindy Gibson is a wood fire/soda fire potter who hails from Ruston, Louisiana. She earned a BFA from Louisiana Tech University. After graduating she spent two years in Goshen, IN interning with several area potters. She recently moved to Brevard, NC to further her ceramic career. Her extraterrestrial body of work combines functional and sculptural elements into a short story about the effects we have in this universe. In addition, she creates exotic and domestic wooden earrings that you can use for pottery tools.
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How do you keep yourself inspired as a potter?
I walk around a lot in the forest with my dog. And there are several books that Ialways go to for inspiration. One of them is by my favorite German botanical artist Ernst Haeckel. He has really awesome prints, very colorful and very eco-friendly.
If there is one person you could learn from, who would that person be and how would you want to learn through that person?
Bonnie Seeman. I am absolutely inspired by her. I love the way she is incorporating glass into her work currently. I would like to do that with glass or wood in mine.
If you have to choose between functional and sculptural, which would you go for?
That’s a tough one. I guess I would just go with sculpture since that is where my roots came from.
Why is that?
I guess it’s more of the concept base. I feel like you get more out of a concept out of a sculpture than you do out of a utilitarian piece. The story behind it.
How has your work changed over time?
I feel like it is evolved a lot more now. When I was an undergrad I basically just did sculptures and then when I was in Indiana I was working with functional potters. So that is when I combined the two realms and basically created this baby of the two.
If you had to keep only one tool and give up all the other tools, which tool would you keep absolutely in your studio?
There is this one that I got from Michaels. It’s got this metal ball at the end and I do a lot of poking with it and the other side is just this plastic clean up tool that I use a lot. That would be the one that I always have by my side.
If you could have a superpower what would your superpower be and why?
That is also another tough one. It wouldn’t be flying because I am terrified of flying. Maybe just being a mother nature kind of superpower. So if I see a tree that is dead I could bring it back to life. Kind of like Fern Gully if you saw that.
BOOKS
John Carter by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Also mentioned in the podcast:
Art Forms in Nature by Ernst Haeckel
Contact
Instagram: @cindygibs