Workshop with
Michelle Gregor
Ceramic Sculpture (All Levels)
Nov. 1–5, 2022 (Tentative Dates)
Price (TBA)
Join us for "An Improvisational Approach Through Form & Surface," a four-day, figurative ceramic sculpture workshop with Michelle Gregor. Due to COVID-19, the workshop originally scheduled to be held from Aug. 3–6, 2020 at Karen Russo Studio in Elmira, OR has been cancelled. It will be rescheduled in 2022, with specific dates to be determined. Registration information is located at the bottom of the page.
Michelle Gregor’s four-day workshop on sculpting the human figure in clay will include live process demonstrations, improvisational exercises and slide presentations. Students will learn construction techniques to push past the common stumbling blocks of proportion, movement and balance.
Specifically, students will build small-scale maquettes in anticipation of larger work (14–20"), learn solid sculpting methods and how to hollow and prepare their pieces for firing. We will break the figure down into basic components and use them to explore their potential for various poses. Special sessions will focus on challenging areas such as creating heads and hands. Additionally, we will address surface development techniques using texture, underglazes and mark-making to strengthen and unify the form. All levels of experience are welcome!
Artist Biography
Michelle Gregor sculpts the abstracted human figure in ceramic. Gregor’s forms apply the free, intuitive impulses of Abstract Expressionism to figurative representation. Her pieces range in dimension from a few inches tall to architectural scale bronzes, but are unified in their sense of calm, mass and balance, simultaneously suggesting motion and repose. Perhaps best known as a colorist, her painterly, multi¬layered and multi-fired approach to surface endows her sculptures with a sense of depth and the passage of time. Gregor has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from University of California, Santa Cruz and a Master of Fine Arts degree from San Francisco State University. She is a tenured Professor of Art at San Jose City College.
Artist Work
Michelle Gregor is known for her abstracted human figure sculptures, featuring complex layers of underglaze and glaze and occasionally metallic lusters. Gregor builds her forms out of solid clay, then slices them open with a strong wire to enable hollowing as the clay enters its dryer 'leather hard' stage. She then reassembles the pieces for drying and kiln firing Each piece endures as many as seven or eight firings, giving them their characteristic liquid, yet hard surfaces. Her works, some up to life-size in scale, convey a sense of balance and mass, seemingly on the edge of flight. Despite their grandiosity, Gregor's figures often carry a humility, a restraint in gesture and expression.
Gregor has been called a “descendant” of sculptors as diverse as Robert Arneson, Peter Voulkos and Viola Frey, and is considered an important second-generation sculptor in the Bay Area Figurative Group, succeeding artists such as Manuel Neri and Stephen DeStaebler. Her contemporaries include Susannah Israel, John Toki, Arthur Gonzalez and Lisa Reinertson.
Please note: All images are attributed to Michelle Gregor.
Michelle Gregor discusses her creative process with John Natsoulas Gallery
Registration Information
Fee (TBA) includes:
Instruction
Demonstrations
50 lbs. clay
Open studio hours
10-student enrollment
First-come, first-served basis
All levels of experience welcomed
No bisque firing provided
Workshop Location
Contact Karen Russo
Information about Michelle Gregor