Pat Swyler

Peace

P.O. Box 266 Sound Beach, NY 11789

An M.F.A. graduate of the School for American Crafts, Pat Swyler's work has been exhibited along the East Coast and in national and international invitational shows as well as museums, including: the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, N.Y., the Heckscher Museum, Huntington, N.Y. and the Islip Art Museum, Islip, N.Y.

Her work is represented in the American Crafts Council slide collection, "Craftsmen of the Northeast" and, most recently, the "Orton International Cone Box Competition," Las Vegas Arts Council's "Faces of Women," Gloria Kennedy Gallery's "Clay: Applied vs. Fine Art," the Guildford Art Center's' Biennial Exhibition of Functional Ceramics," the "2007 Kiln God National," and the "2007 Jersey Shore Clay National" sponsored by the MT Burton Gallery. She has taught at both the State University of New York at Stony Brook and Dowling College.

Swyler works with sculptural and functional forms in her Sound Beach, Long Island studio.

STATEMENT

Since childhood the human figure has interested me as subject matter. Recent changes in my life allow me to spend time working from live models in both clay and drawing materials. Although the majority of my work is three dimensional, drawing and painting are essential to the development of my ideas in clay.

My current work centers on the human body as a means of expressing concepts. Many of the female forms I sculpt represent nature goddesses. These women hold floral offerings symbolizing love, fertility and compassion - the preciousness of all life. The Metropolitan Museum of Art collection of Asian sculptures is a source of inspiration and reference. These works are designed to create a feeling of peace. I let the plasticity of the clay remain in the finished pieces, emphasizing its textural qualities by using multiple rubbed color layers. The scale of my work is small (six to twenty-four inches), requiring the viewer to look closely, creating a feeling of intimacy.

Clay is my medium of choice. Its plasticity allows me to rapidly develop my forms while the firing process transforms them into something stonelike and permanent. My surface colors are built up gradually with a mixed media approach. Oxides and ceramic colorants are fired onto some surfaces while others are finished with oil and acrylic paint layers. Experimentation with color layers is exciting and I often find my final results surprising. Varied clays and firing techniques result in dramatic differences in surfaces. The majority of my work is fired in an oxidizing atmosphere in an electric kiln.

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Peace (detail)

Sustenance (detail)

Sustenance

Serenity (detail)

Serenity