Robin Caster-Howard
Duality in Secondary Colors 1 (green); Ceramic; 14" x 8" x 6"
Duality in Secondary Colors 2 (orange); Ceramic; 12" x 9" x 6"
ContactRobin Caster-Howard
Alfred, NY Howard@alfred.edu |
Duality in Secondary Colors 3 (purple); Ceramic; 15" x 10" x 6"
artist's statementMy undergraduate professors at Massachusetts College of Art supported experimentation with materials other than clay. In 1983, after the first four years of my education, I considered myself a mixed-media artist. Once I was in graduate school at the NYSCC in Alfred, New York, everything changed. My graduate professors asked me to work exclusively in clay, which was a challenge. But the limitation of using only one material proved to be a great teacher.
My response to clay is intuitive. I begin work with no exact plan, other than an inclination toward floral imagery. The flowers and the forms of my work represent two distinct realities. The former is nonrigid; the latter is nonflexible; yet they are equal in importance. The three pieces entitled “Duality in Secondary Colors” exemplify this duality, which I view as symbolic of coexistence: a dialogue of the rigid and the flexible. about the artistBorn in Brooklyn in 1951, Robin Caster graduated from Sheepshead Bay High School in 1969. For the next seventeen years, she worked in the restaurant business. In 1979, she began her undergraduate education, majoring in ceramics and sculpture at Massachusetts College of Art. As a double major, she stayed on for a fifth year, graduating with a B.F.A. in 1984. She then attended graduate school at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred, New York, where she earned an M.F.A. in 1986. Beginning her administrative career as an assistant at the International Museum Ceramic Art in Alfred, she became, in 1994, a recruiter for the School of Art and Design, and, in 2002, its Assistant Dean, serving in that position for seventeen years. Now retired, she is fulfilling her dream of being a full-time artist. In 2015, her work was included in a show at the Burchfield-Penney Gallery in Buffalo, New York. In September, 2019, three new pieces will be included in the Southern Tier Biennial Exhibition in Olean, New York. And in March, 2020, her work will be featured in an invitational exhibition at the Cohen Gallery in Alfred, New York.
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