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2009 Workshops

Sculpting Gesture: Animal and Human
Instructor: Beth Cavener Stichter and Tip Toland
June 15–26, 2009

In a rare collaboration, this two-week workshop will give participants
a hands-on opportunity to work with two of the field’s most dynamic sculptors. Beth Cavener Stichter, known for her visceral, emotionally charged animal figures and Tip Toland who creates intense narratives with the human figure, will team up to share their experiences as full-time studio artists.

This workshop will give participants a glimpse of how one can tackle elements of gesture and expression, attitude and narrative, while discussing the logistics of creating human and animal figures.   Cavener Stichter and Toland will cover a range of practical technical information about working in clay as well as initiate discussions on how to transfer ideas and meaning visually. Cavener Stichter will demonstrate her unusual method of working with a solid mass of clay, often over 2,000 lbs., afterwards hollowing each part of the sculpture down to the skin. Toland will show how to use an armature to build her figures, and will provide insight regarding human anatomy, articulating facial features and will talk about various cold-finish surface options. Students will participate in their own conceptual framework/planning stages of a piece, technical methods of building solid and hollowing out, and the firing and finishing options for their work. 

 Lectures and PowerPoint presentations will be given during the workshop to elaborate on a variety of topics throughout the workshop, and both artists will share their experience of the “commercial” side of being an artist including: pricing your work, working with multiple galleries, and finding good homes for your artwork.


Tip Toland,
Painting the Burning Fence



Beth Cavener Stichter,
Rush of Blood (detail)

















Beth Cavener Stichter, Subito Piano Forte                   Tip Toland, Milk for the Butter Thief (detail)
Beth CAVENER STICHTER is currently a full-time professional studio artist. She received her BA in sculpture from Haverford College and her MFA from Ohio State University. She was awarded the Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant, an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Ohio Arts Council in 2005, and the American Craft Council’s Emerging Artist Fellowship in 2004.  She has also been an Artist-in-Residence at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia and the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT. She has exhibited nationally (at such institutions as the Smithsonian Museum) and internationally and has taught numerous workshops across the country.
A Virginia A. Groot Foundation Award and National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship recipient, Tip TOLAND received  her BFA in ceramics from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an MFA in ceramics from Montana State University. She has taught extensively nationally and locally at schools including Louisiana State University, University of Montana, Montana State University, University of Washington and Seward Park Clay Studio. She exhibits nationally and is represented by Nancy Margolis Gallery, NY and Pacini Lubel. Her work is in many prestigious collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art.