Tip Toland

Biography: Tip Toland is a ceramic artist & Teacher whose work is subtly autobiographical within a frozen moment, teeming with humanity, exists a vessel for her thoughts and feelings.She was born in May 9, 1950 at Pottstown and her family consist of two sisters ,younger brother and parents.In 1975. She received her Bachelors in Fine Arts Ceramic in university of Colorado and later on expanded her education in Montana State university to receive her Masters in Fine Arts Ceramics.Her previous accolades include a Visual Arts Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Artist-in-Residences in Wyoming, Oregon, Montana, and Washington, an Artist Trust GAP Award, and the Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant, among others.Her work,which are figurative and often define as Hyper-Real.

Work:She is inspired by the human aging from the beginning or end of their life. Toland believed that within those years,a human experiences vulnerability,isolation and innocence. Most of her portrait work is combined with a sad and mysterious facial expression that projects a significant aging process.

While exploring age and aging, Tonald's work attempts to give voice to inner psychological and spiritual state of being.What is of number one importance to her is that the figures include unique aspects of humanity,which they mirror back to the viewer.Its the fragility and temporary issue of mankind that the artist is after.That is one motive for deciding on very antique or very young subject; they each portray innocence as well as complexity.While her subjects are sometimes Self-Portraits, they are meant to convey universal thruths about humanity,society and self.

Style: Tonald goes beyond the Realistic form of a Human. Her techniques and attention to detail has become one of her significant. The way she finishes her work with waxy finish or even sometimes using real human hair to emphasis the realness of the piece. Toland carefully defines the wrinkles,the deep emotions in each face features.The ceramic ware eyes produce a doll-like realism that's each haunting and captivating, whereas clear outlined wrinkles, skin tone and bone structure are great realistic. Her work gives off humor,depth and meaning.The hyper realism of Toland's figures comes in the result of her focus to details and distinctive use of materials. 
Statement:
As part of her Fellowship’s Meet the Artist requirements, Tip presented a talk on her work to a crowd of over 100 at the Bellevue Arts Museum in conjunction with her solo show, Melt, the Figure in Clay. Tip’s Fellowship gave her the confidence to give this advice to an aspiring sculptor: “If I can do it, you can do it… At times one wonders in the many months of making work in one’s basement alone, if this is nuts or not. My belief is that it is nuts and at the same time a calling. We all need a lot of encouragement and I am very grateful to Artist Trust for the encouragement this grant provided me.”

Sculpture:

 

      Title: The Whistlers                                                            

 Medium: Stoneware, Paint, Paint and Synthetic Hairs

                           Scale: 22 × 19 × 17 1/2  (Left)         21 3/4 × 20 × 19 1/2 (Right)                                                     

                                               

  

                   Title: Letter To God                                                                        

                            Medium: Stoneware, Chalk Pastel, Paint, Synthetic Hairs                    

                        Scale: 22"h , 38"w ,19"d                                                                     

        Title: Africa                                                                          

                            Medium: Clay, Paint, Pastel, Synthetic Hair                                          

                        Scale: 22"h , 38"w ,19"d                                                                      

    

Solo Exhibitions:                                                                                                 

2012              Barry Friedman Ltd, New York, NY

2008              Melt, Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA

2007              Pacini Lubel Gallery, Seattle, WA

2005              Nancy Margolis Gallery, New York, NY

2002              Nancy Margolis Gallery, New York, NY

1998              Recent Work, William Traver Gallery, Seattle, WA

1992              William Traver Gallery, Seattle, WA

1990              William Traver Gallery, Seattle, WA

1988              Helen Drutt Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

                      Traver Sutton Gallery, Seattle, WA

1983              Contemporary Crafts Association, Portland.

Group Exhibitions:

2006              Living it Large, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, KY

                      The Edges of Grace. Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA

2004              A Ceramic Continuum: Fifty Years of the Archie Bray Influence the Northwest 

                      Museum of Arts and Culture, Spokane

2004              Edgy Characters, NCECA, University of Indianapolis, Wheeler Arts Center

2003              Women on the Edge, Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis, MO

2000-02         Ceramic National 2000, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY

2000              Northwest International Art Competition, Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA

1995              Resident artist exhibition, Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT