Rachel K. Garceau

Rachel K. Garceau


After receiving her B.A. in Fine Arts from Franklin Pierce College (NH) in 2003, Rachel K. Garceau continued her ceramic education through studio assistantships, workshops, and residencies at various studios, schools, and museums including Haystack Mountain School of Crafts (ME) and Vendsyssel Kuntsmuseum (DK).

Rachel completed the Core Fellowship at Penland School of Crafts (NC) in 2013 where she engaged in a two-year material exploration, shifting her focus from clay to include metal, paper, and fiber.

As a 2013-2014 Artist-in-Residence at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts (TN), Rachel returned to ceramics through mold making and slip casting. Utilizing these processes, she produces series of large porcelain forms and then introduces them to found environments, inviting others to experience these altered spaces.

If you are interested in learning more or purchasing a piece of Rachel Garceau’s artwork, please contact Sara McDonnell at Art Makers, artmakers.com/contact.

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Description

Artist Statement

As a mold maker, I design and construct a form, make a mold from it, and predictably repeat that form, harnessing the power of the multiple. By arranging like objects in space, I suggest relationships between people who are not there—the height and tilt of umbrellas or the positioning of pairs of shoes littering the floor.

As a slip caster, I use porcelain to cast these objects and then collaborate with the kiln. I supported my umbrellas in various ways in the kiln, allowing the warping and shifting that takes place in the firing to affect the way that each umbrella took its final position. The shapes are similar, but have slightly different curves and bends—the movement of fabric under the pressure of falling water now frozen in time.

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As a print maker, I utilize the interior surface of the mold as my block, building layers of information with colored slip that will later be exposed. I observe and document what I see—the pattern of a drainage grate, a curled up centipede, the cables of a chair lift merging with the branches of trees—then embed this information in the surfaces of my porcelain forms. Before the firing, I strip away portions of the outer layer of pure white slip, revealing the history that lies beneath.

As a story teller, I draw inspiration from my environments and my own personal history. By extracting an image, a texture, a contour, a pattern, or text from a moment in my life, I begin to build. I construct multiple components into a single piece to signify the notion that these events are fleeting, never still, and can be taken apart and interpreted in different ways—arranging bricks in a particular matrix, I reveal a message through the dots and dashes of Morse code.

From the finest teacup to the rest stop toilet, we encounter porcelain in our daily lives. I rely on the viewer’s notion of the material to come into play when approaching my work—it is fragile and can be broken, yet it is strong and durable—rugged enough to support the weight of a human. Encountering these objects unexpectedly magnifies this experience—porcelain umbrellas floating overhead, or a row of porcelain objects creating a pathway in the forest, or a sidewalk of porcelain bricks in an otherwise empty courtyard.

My offering is an opportunity for pause, allowing the viewers time and space in the quiet environments that I create or asking them to consider an element in the landscape that may have otherwise gone unnoticed..

Selected Exhibitions

Reclaimed, One Wall Gallery, an exhibition on line and in print  2014

porcelain, featured artist exhibition, Crimson Laurel Gallery, Bakersville, NC  2014

Hambidge Center Gala, The Goat Farm Arts Center, Atlanta, GA  2014

Art & the Urban Garden, Lillstreet Gallery, Chicago, IL  2014

Sound & Vision, Atlanta Film Festival, The Goat Farm Arts Center, Atlanta, GA  2014

Five Lines: Resident Artists’ Exhibition, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN  2014

On the Horizon, St. Petersburg Clay Company, St. Petersburg, FL   2014

Disaster, Relief, Resilience, Crimson Laurel Gallery, Bakersville, NC  2013

Current, Loggia Gallery, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN  2013

Containment IV, All Stars, Crimson Laurel Gallery, Bakersville, NC  2013

In The Mix, Amaco/Brent Gallery, Indianapolis, IN  2013

In The Mix, Crimson Laurel Gallery, Bakersville, NC  2013

Via Penland, Rebus Works, Raleigh, NC  2012

Consider The Cup, The Artisan Gallery, Northampton, MA   2012

Levels and Degrees, University Gallery, La Crosse, WI 2012

Core Show, Penland Gallery, Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC  2012

ScanCeram Presenters’ Exhibition, University College Nordjylland, Hjørring, Denmark  2012

Containment III, A Nesting Instinct, Crimson Laurel Gallery, Bakersville, NC  2012

Consider The Cup, The Artisan Gallery, Northampton, MA   2011

Core Show, Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC  2011

Containment II, The Inside Story, Crimson Laurel Gallery, Bakersville, NC  2011

Sharing the Stage: The Contemporary Vase, The Artisan Gallery, Northampton, MA  2011

Cup and Mug Invitational, The Artisan Gallery, Northampton, MA  2010

Twist Fair, Northampton Center for the Arts, Northampton, MA  2010

We Didn’t Hear, Starbux Studio, Turners Falls, MA  2010

Featured Artist, Molly Cantor Pottery, Shelburne Falls, MA  2009

Cup and Mug Invitational, The Artisan Gallery, Northampton, MA  2009

Home and Retreat, Sharon Arts Center, Peterborough, NH  2008

Waste, Sharon Arts Center, Peterborough, NH 2008

Get Closer, Prime Roast Coffee Company, Keene, NH 2005