Sarah Gatter - Insider Art

1 | P a g eFrom left to right: All My Heads In One Basket, mixed ceramics; Mousehole, The Gaps, mixed mediaon canvas; There’s Always One, Ceramic on mirrorFrom The Inside Out: By Sarah Gatter.I am a mixed media artist living and working in Cornwall. Although inspired (at times) by theCornish landscape it is my internal landscape that really motivates my art making.My art practice is rooted in exploring and experiencing processes using mixed media throughwhich I experiment with tools, materials and techniques creating a spectrum of finished artwork. I enjoy 2D painting episodically as well as collage and printmaking, often followed byan intrigue and urgency to work in 3D. I no longer attempt to specialise my art, feeling thatthe excitement of eclectic mixed media processes is my creative calling.My current work is a result of exploring the divide between my physical sense of self and myspiritual sense of self which has become fundamental to my ‘being in the world’ despite notbeing religious. It starts with an examination (like a medical) of my physicality-including mybody and the space that I inhabit as well as my gut reactions to the world (this is mirroredin the processes I use) and how I see myself in relation to others. I am vitally aware of thelack of congruency between my physical self and my emotional self and how I chose toexpress this at one time in a dysfunctional daily life- such as self harming behaviours. Thecreative processes that enabled me to demonstrate this includes paper moulding, sanding,burning, scoring, sawing and drilling into the work, fully handling the materials and tools,controlling and manipulating them, then losing and gaining control of those processes, oftenwalking away for a while then returning after several days to wrestle these forms into apermanent resolution. Not all of my work finds itself in a state of permanence, much isconstantly evolving.SHame, 3D mixed mediaSarah Gatter 2010 on Show & Tell, www.insiderart.org.uk

2 | P a g eFrom this completed 3D sculpture (SHame, 3D mixed media, 2009) I moved directly intoclay work enjoying the excitement of earth, air, water and fire to further express my longingfor a physical, emotional and ultimately spiritual sense of equanimity. I love the emollientnature of clay and the alchemic transformations in the kiln or smoke firing, allowing me tocontinue my passion for burning or scolding surfaces but in a less explicit or directlydestructive way. It also allowed me to experience a more productive process of ‘giving birth’to a series of heads from a cast made of plaster, one after another, as if I am a midwife! Ibecame quickly fascinated by the differences in the heads although all cast from the samemould they lack a uniform identity. The heads measure approx 7cm (height) x 5cm (width).Diversity, mixed ceramics.Emergence, mixed media print.Initially I aimed to continue to experiment with a variety of clays, oxides, glazes and firings (“All My Heads in One Basket”) However, In March 2010 I was commissioned to make aseries of white porcelain heads for a psychotherapy degree presentation called‘Configurations of The Self’.The Five Of Souls, ceramic porcelain on boardSarah Gatter 2010 on Show & Tell, www.insiderart.org.uk

3 | P a g eSmoke fired head.Head on driftwood, ceramic & mixed media.This encouraged me to identify with a ‘spiritual experience’ in the head forms and deeplyconsider materials, surface, presence, poignancy, transparency and being. I decided to setup a space using candle lights and mirrors and was intrigued by its flickering ‘soulful’ andserene nature. For me these became ‘sorrowful saints’ in mourning and ‘other worldly’maybe, but harmless. However, a friend experiencing the same scene described it as‘malevolent’ which only added to my wonderment of this process and the politics of personaland subjective experiences.Sorrowful Saints with Mirrors, ceramic & mixed mediaSarah Gatter 2010 on Show & Tell, www.insiderart.org.uk

4 | P a g ePorcelain Head, ceramic & glazes.I continue to develop these ideas using mirrors, water, glass and light and I am currentlyworking on an installation using porcelain tiles with translucent effects.It will explore the theme of the ‘invisible’ or ‘silent’ child which has manifested alongside the‘sorrowful saints’ theme. Using white porcelain suggests to me fragility and vulnerability aswell as purity. I aim to explore different surfaces, including crackle glazes and smoke firingas well as wax resist and black oxides on textured surfaces. I am also keen to explore thesame themes using black porcelain.The venue and exhibition date for this is yet to be arranged.Letting Go, Mixed media on boardArt work is for sale and commissions taken. Please contact me at sarah.gatter@yahoo.co.ukor 07837075649. Or see: www.sarahgatter.co.ukSarah completed Insider Art’s Arts & Health for Participatory Visual Arts course before goingon to a Post Graduate Certificate in Education in Art, Design & Creative Skills. She begins anMA in Art Histories and Theories at University College Falmouth in October 2010.She is a self-employed Creative Practitioner and Community Arts Tutor.Sarah Gatter 2010Sarah Gatter 2010 on Show & Tell, www.insiderart.org.uk