Tip+Toland

smaller and weaker than the other and presumably a hindrance in their endeavors. Nevertheless, their separation would implicitly result in the destruction of both." Toland is making the viewer aware of personality traits and our strengths and weaknesses. She is not only showing the physical deformity of these individuals, but moves us more to the psychological. It is like the conflict with right and wrong in our own minds. Toland is not interested in just giving the viewer beautiful portraits of people, she wants to show the flaws in human nature. It is not necessarily about the figures themselves, but how they make one feel and how they involve the viewer.
 * Tip Toland** (1950 - ) Originally from Pennsylvania, Toland now lives and works in Seattle, Washington. She received her B.F.A. in ceramics from The University of Colorado at Boulder and her M.F.A. in ceramics from the University of Montana at Bozeman. Toland is currently teaching at Pottery Northwest and The Gage Academy both in Seattle, WA. Toland is known for creating extremely life like renditions of the human figure out of clay. She sculpts the bust of the figures out of a solid block of clay then hollows them out. She then constructs the rest of her figure out of slabs and fires them in pieces. After they have been bisque fired, she paints them and uses chalk pastels to draw in the details. When they are put together they appear to be seamless. In her artist statement she writes "What is of primary importance to me is that the figures contain particular aspects of humanity which they can mirror back to the viewer. It is the vulnerability of humanity I am after. That is one reason for choosing very old or very young subjects. They both can portray innocence as well as extreme complexity." In __[|Grace Flirts]__, Toland shows an adolescent female in her somewhat revealing swimsuit, shivering from the cold, and wearing a pair of wax lips. In this sculpture she is portraying the vulnerability and blossoming sexuality of this young girl. She engages the viewer by forcing them to make an emotional connection to her. Toland wants us to feel uncomfortable with Grace and pushes us into wanting to care for and protect her. In her piece __[|Prayers]__, Toland portrays conjoined twins with a sense of conflict in their size and personality. "One twin is visibly

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 * Demonstration: Sculpting a bust.**

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 * Tip Toland: at BAM**

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 * Bibliography** (Tip Toland)

"Artist Statement" Gage Academy, accessed April 21, 2011, [] Brown, Glen. "The Precious and Precarious." //Ceramic: Art and Perception// no. 60 (2005): 81-84. Kangas, Matthew. "Tip Toland, Prayer and Preoccupation." //Ceramics Monthly// 55, no. 7 (August/September 2007): 22-24. Schwartz, Judith. //Confrontational Ceramics.// Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. Shames, Germaine. "2009 NCECA Clay National Biennial Exhibition." //Ceramics Monthly// 59, no. 1 (June, July, August 2009): 24-25. "Tip Toland", accessed April 4, 2011, [].