Patsy Cox- Northridge, CA
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Patsy's Writing About Her Work:
I use forms and textures found in nature in extreme repetition to capture the constantly expanding and reconfiguring urban landscape. My objects capture physical time and energy to elicit a feeling of density. The conceptual combination of the man made metropolis with the clumping, sprouting, flowering structures of natural plant life provides a point of intersection. They both undergo developments that increase their size and physicality. The city and nature have a point of germination that allows them to develop, flourish and thrive. I’m taking a snapshot of our contemporary time, of excess, consumption and unrelenting activity.
My work is incessant and constant and meant to create a sense of being overwhelmed. Diversity, assimilation, growth and movement within the context of a particular place is the focus of my work. They are representations of the urban landscape, the mixtures of culture, race, identity, and a comment on how these factors appear in a particular space as defined by its confines and surroundings. Using primary colors as a metaphor, I allude to the idea that all colors can be made from the mixture. My work is ELEMENTAL in its relationship to the basic fundamentals of color and often in its reliance on the Golden Ratio. I aspire to achieve a sense of the monumental created through modular units to ultimately impart a force of nature. I use these ideas to convey a sense of my surroundings.
My pieces are fabricated from clay, in a traditional way, fired and glazed. All pieces are true to the process and traditions of ceramics and are shaped by my own hands. Simultaneously, I strive to conceive and present the work in contradiction to accepted conventions of my chosen material. The work is about time and labor through the lens of living in a large urban center and making the comparison to the constant growth of the natural world.
Bio
Patsy Cox received her BFA from Missouri State University and her MFA in from the University of Delaware. She is Professor of Visual Art and Head of Ceramics at California State University, Northridge. Cox is a former President for the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) and Fellow of the Council. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally and lectured extensively. Her work has been featured in catalogs, periodicals and books. She has received recognition for her work in the form of awards and grants and maintains a productive studio near downtown Los Angeles.