Who Inspires You?

“Having come from a family of my mother who is a really powerful black female and my grandmother who was an educator, who was really a powerful black female…So I feel like it’s something I am really compelled to carry on.”

– Alison Saar

LESSON OVERVIEW

In this lesson students will learn about the artists Alison Saar, Betye Saar, and Maddy Leeser whose works are inspired by the artist Simon Rodia as well as their deep interest in history, identity, and African American culture, whose style encompasses a variety of personal, artistic, and cultural references that reflect their own experiences. Their sculptures, installations, assemblages, and prints incorporate found objects including wood, old tin ceiling panels, nails, shards of pottery, glass, fabric, photographs, and other objects from popular culture. The resulting figures and objects become powerful totems exploring issues of gender, race, heritage, and history.

Grade Level: 7–12

Estimated Time: five or more 45-minute class periods

Craft In America Theme/Episode: INSPIRATION

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Viola Frey

Most recognized for her ceramic sculptures, Viola Frey was a multi-disciplinary artist who worked in ceramic, bronze, and glass, as well as working in painting, drawing, and photography. Born in Lodi, CA in 1933, Frey took classes at Stockton College after graduating from high school, and soon after received a scholarship to attend California College of the Arts. She graduated from CCA in 1955 with a BFA in painting, although she was continually drawn to the ceramics department, saying “It seemed more like the real world. It was a community.” She continued her studies at Tulane, but decided to leave early in order to immerse herself in the ceramics community of Port Chester, NY, becoming involved with the Clay Art Center. Frey later relocated to the Bay Area, where over the next many decades she continued to refine her artistic practice. An avid collector of books, art, and other objects, she eventually incorporated bricolage into her creations. She received fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts and the American Craft Council, and her work has been shown in galleries and museums nationwide, including the Whitney Museum of American Art (NY, NY), the Oakland Museum of California, and Renwick Gallery of the National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, DC. Frey was also a dedicated arts educator and held a full time teaching position at CCA from 1971 until her retirement in 1999. The school honored her contributions with an honorary doctorate and the title of professor emerita. Frey passed away in her home in Oakland, CA in 2004. 

Simon Rodia

Simon “Sam” Rodia (b. 1879, Italy) was an artist most known for his large-scale installation in Watts, California, entitled Nuestro Pueblo, but more commonly referred to as Watts Towers. Rodia was born in a small town near Naples, Italy and immigrated to the United States with his family in the early 1890s. His early life is sparsely documented, but upon moving to the US, Rodia moved to the West Coast and found work in rock quarries, logging and railroad camps, and construction. He eventually settled in Long Beach around 1911.

Several years later, in 1921, he purchased a lot at 1765 East 107th street in the Watts district of Los Angeles, on which to construct his large-scale masterpiece. Rodia worked on Nuestro Pueblo for over 25 years, in the evenings and on weekends, after his various day jobs, until its completion in 1948. He designed and built the Towers entirely himself, constructing them out of masonry, tile, and various found objects, and decorating the surfaces with singular, hand-placed mosaics. Several structures compose the complete installation, the largest of which stands at 99 1/2 feet tall. Rodia gifted the property to his neighbors before retiring to Martinez, CA, where he died in 1965. The Watts Towers were his last work of art. 

Tommie Rush on her work

Glass artist Tommie Rush on her work and her love of gardening. Bonus video from HARMONY episode.

Tommie Rush

Tommie Rush, a native of Mobile, Alabama, is a glass artist who lives and maintains a studio, Tomco Inc., in Knoxville, Tennessee.  She began her early studies in ceramics which ultimately led her to working in glass. By 1980, Tommie Rush began to share a studio space with renowned artist Richard Jolley, whom she married several years later. Through tireless experimentation and the development of custom blended glass mixed in the studio, Tommie Rush has created a unique and identifiable style. 

Richard Jolley segment

Artist Richard Jolley segment from the HARMONY episode.

https://youtu.be/ekmdsu83GXI

Jewelry: Purpose, Presence, and Meaning

LESSON OVERVIEW

In this lesson students will view the work of contemporary jewelry artists Harriete Estel Berman, Gabrielle Gould, and Jesse Monongya. Through investigating these artists’ approaches to jewelry making and the processes and techniques they employ, students will understand and discuss how these artists select materials based on personal choices, life experiences, and things they care about in the natural environment. Students will learn about their use of found objects and recycled materials, consider how jewelry is made, collaborate and brainstorm ways to design and create their own jewelry, and explore jewelry as art and as personal adornment. Students will create their own jewelry that has personal meaning and communicates a message that may go beyond the confines of traditional jewelry.

Grade: 7–12

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Richard Jolley on working with students

Glass artists Richard Jolley and Tommie Rush on working with students. Bonus video from the HARMONY episode streaming starting November 4, 2021 on the PBS Video App, craftinamerica.org, and pbs.org/craftinamerica. PBS broadcast premiere December 10, 2021 (check local listings).

Glass artist Richard Jolley preview

Glass artist Richard Jolley preview from the HARMONY episode streaming starting November 4, 2021 on the PBS Video App, craftinamerica.org, and pbs.org/craftinamerica. PBS broadcast premiere December 10, 2021 (check local listings).

Jolley’s monumental glass and steel sculpture at the Knoxville Museum of Art inspired the commission a violin concerto by the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra premiering April 21, 2022.

Richard Jolley

With a career that spans over 40 years, Richard Jolley is one of today’s most accomplished glass sculptors. His figurative work uses organic forms to explore the breadth of the human experience; from the body to nature to science. Born in Wichita, Kansas, Jolley moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee in his youth. He has continued to call East Tennessee his home, even making the unconventional decision to establish his glass studio in Knoxville in 1975. Jolley began his fine art studies at Tusculum College in 1970 and later completed his BFA at George Peabody College (now part of Vanderbilt University). He has participated in over 64 solo museum and gallery exhibitions across the country and internationally, and his work is included in the collections of several prominent institutions including the Carnegie Museum of Art, Corning Museum of Glass, Knoxville Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC. 

In May 2014, Jolley’s steel and glass masterwork Cycle of Life: Within the Power of Dreams and the Wonder of Infinity, opened at the Knoxville Museum of Art. Five years in the making, Cycle of Life is one of the largest figural glass assemblages in the world. The installation is composed of thousands of blown glass and steel elements and symbolically depicts six successive phases of life: Primordial, Emergence, Desire, Tree of Life, Contemplation, and Sky. “It’s a figurative range of people and nature,” Jolley says. “The question was how to distill the life cycle to fit the space and answer the questions: Who are we? Where are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?”