Patty Interviews Ethel Shipton
Ethel Shipton, is a visual artist living and working in San Antonio. She is the second artist asked to curate for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in its Artist-Curating-Artist Series. Her exhibition, La Mezcla/The Mixture, opens Thursday, January 28, 2010, with a 6 PM opening reception. Shipton has shown her work nationally and locally, including Artpace, SalaDiaz, Unit B, Blue Star, and The Shore Institute of the Contemporary Arts in Long Branch, New Jersey.
Patty Ortiz (PO): How does your choice of materials relate to the conceptual premise of your work?
Ethel Shipton (ES): Most of the time the concept/idea comes first, and then the thought of material use enters. But materials are always on the mind. This is just the way my mind and eye work. Example: I made 30 – 4″ x 15″ x 6″ small highway sculptures that hang off the wall interwoven. Wood was the material used and this choice was made for the ability to do the work in house.
PO: I find in your work that materials seem to echo your concept, maybe that is accidental. For example, your use of vinyl, which to me seems to be a very utilitarian and common material. This material is loaded with meaning and memory. It triggers for me the cheap industrialization of America as well as strong emotional memories of driving to the coast in my grandfather’s Chevy. Is this intentional or just practical for you?
ES: It’s a bit of both, I do find myself attracted to materials so that becomes intentional in order to feed that need to explore the materials and to move through the material with its meaning. Example: the use of vinyl – understanding that the material comes with its own language and meaning. Referencing car upholstery and the trade of upholstery work and knowing that when working with this material you are taken along the materials vocabulary, combining it with what you are trying to express as an artist. At times it becomes a practical choice due to time and money. But I think the overall driving force for me is the use of hand in the work and the understanding that if the choice is being made intentionally or for practical reasons that the concept and the materials are in a conversation.
PO: So, in “Home again, Home again…” you hung short sections, possibly snapshots of highways on the wall, with a grouping of vinyl home shapes on the floor. Can you share the story about what drove you (excuse the pun) to the completion of this piece?
ES: I had started to notice the paths my dog had started to form in the yard – a path from the back door to the water bowl, a path to the front gate, a path to the back of the yard. Then I remembered those paths I saw in my childhood on the ranch— the cow paths that would define the movement of the herd. I began thinking about our every day movement and why we move from place to place – job, food, family, friendships, entertainment, culture, school and commerce. With a little research I found that many of our highways in San Antonio and other cities where cattle trials formed were from the cattle industry moving cattle from one part of the country to another. I was excited by the fact that here we are 2010 and we are still moving on some of the same paths formed so long ago, formed for much of the same reasons. I liked the simple beauty and form of the highways, the curves, the long straight section, the feel of the road and the quiet that comes from driving alone. Then I began watching how these where being constructed around the city. These structures started to look like mesas in the horizon. They where constructed with many hands and fewer machines than one might think. My obsession with the highway grew and I drew highways for a year and made paintings and sculptures. With all this traveling, it started me thinking about place, the comforts of place and the places that give me comfort – HOME that was it – neighborhood, community, these things that give us a place to sit still and give us a place to grow and live. So, these two elements seem to have to be together, to express ideas of movement and place. One doesn’t rally work without the other. I am still working with these two images in my work and will see where I land.
PO: These contrasting ideas put together are simple but very powerful! I also love your playful approach. Each home form seems to have a personality and the highway forms on the wall seem like a fragment of a memory in a series of memories. I also like how it is based on cattle drives. Do you think you reference this South Texas lifestyle in other ways?
ES: Well, it may be me projecting a little, because I choose San Antonio. But I have noticed the first few years of being here that many of the people I met were from somewhere else. UTSA has brought a lot of artists here through their graduate program and other people move here for jobs or personal reasons, such as family, love etc. But what happens is that they often stay and become part of the community. They buy homes, sit on boards of different organizations and begin to make a mark and a commitment to San Antonio. And the creative community here is very giving and supportive. I am going to list three different galleries run by people who choose to live here and I am sure for all different reasons. Example: Cactus Bra run by Leigh Anne Lester and Jane Lawrence who both attend UTSA and Sala Diaz started by a native San Antonio boy, but has been run by Hills Synder for the last 10 years, who also got his MFA from UTSA and the Three Walls run by Michele Monseau who come to San Antonio for grad school and stayed. I truly believe people stay because this city and its long established creative community is a giving and caring group of people that allow growth and movement in its art and artist. This community has a long history of making things happen and many of our institutions started out with one person idea, or a grass roots movement toward something better. The thing that I noticed the most when I moved to San Antonio is that you feel as if you could try anything and the community would help you and support you in your endeavor.
PO: Thanks, Ethel. I look forward to seeing your exhibition at the GCAC’s Galeria Tonantzin, opening January 28, 2010!
SAMPLE OF ETHEL SHIPTON’S WORK
"Home Again, Home Again" by Ethel Shipton. This work was shown at Texas State University, Summer of 2008
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