COLEEN STERRITT
Biography
Coleen Sterritt is a Los Angeles-based artist known primarily for her abstract, hybrid sculpture. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is held in public and private collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art, L.A. and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Named a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow in 2016, Sterritt's other awards and fellowships include: the National Endowment for the Arts, the J.Paul Getty Trust Fund for the Visual Arts /California Community Foundation, the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program, Art Matters, Inc., and the City of Los Angeles Individual Artist (COLA) Fellowship. In 2019 she received the Outstanding Educator Award from the International Sculpture Center and in 2023, she received a Legacy Award from the College of Fine & Applied Arts, University of Illinois.
Sterritt was born in Morris, Illinois. She received a BFA from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and an MFA from Otis College of Art & Design, Los Angeles.
www.coleensterritt.com
Project Description
Upgraded Studio Equipment
I recently retired from 38+ years of teaching, the last 25 years as faculty coordinator of the sculpture program at Long Beach City College in Long Beach, CA. While teaching at LBCC, I had the ability to utilize the equipment in our extensive wood and metal shops. Now that I’m retired, those privileges are no longer available to me. I’ve spent the past two years working with worn out, inadequate equipment and realize I need to update a variety of items in my studio shop. Throughout my practice, I've employed a variety of materials in creating my hybrid sculpture. Using fabricated components along with found furniture, natural elements, and other various discarded objects, I continually rehabilitate, reconsider, recycle, and redesign. The work is both formal and evocative as I’ve explored a variety of sculptural considerations. It can be solid or pliable, tall or tiny, lightweight or very dense as seen in the selection of images I submitted. The scale of the larger works invites me to consider opportunities for outdoor sculpture and public installation. As such, I’m developing ideas incorporating more permanent materials.
My current work centers on the use of multiple, wooden components requiring an upgraded bandsaw and drill press as well as numerous hand tools for woodworking. These items are essential. I’ve also started working with cast metal components and I require the equipment to finish those projects such as oxy-acetylene tanks for welding and brazing. An upgraded electric welder would assist in fabrication of armatures.
I believe upgrading my tools and equipment would allow me to further experiment with these materials as is my methodology and complete a new body of work continuing to move forward in my practice. Within this new body of work, I’m adding more crafted components which require more refined equipment.
Biography
Coleen Sterritt is a Los Angeles-based artist known primarily for her abstract, hybrid sculpture. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is held in public and private collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art, L.A. and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Named a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow in 2016, Sterritt's other awards and fellowships include: the National Endowment for the Arts, the J.Paul Getty Trust Fund for the Visual Arts /California Community Foundation, the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program, Art Matters, Inc., and the City of Los Angeles Individual Artist (COLA) Fellowship. In 2019 she received the Outstanding Educator Award from the International Sculpture Center and in 2023, she received a Legacy Award from the College of Fine & Applied Arts, University of Illinois.
Sterritt was born in Morris, Illinois. She received a BFA from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and an MFA from Otis College of Art & Design, Los Angeles.
www.coleensterritt.com
Project Description
Upgraded Studio Equipment
I recently retired from 38+ years of teaching, the last 25 years as faculty coordinator of the sculpture program at Long Beach City College in Long Beach, CA. While teaching at LBCC, I had the ability to utilize the equipment in our extensive wood and metal shops. Now that I’m retired, those privileges are no longer available to me. I’ve spent the past two years working with worn out, inadequate equipment and realize I need to update a variety of items in my studio shop. Throughout my practice, I've employed a variety of materials in creating my hybrid sculpture. Using fabricated components along with found furniture, natural elements, and other various discarded objects, I continually rehabilitate, reconsider, recycle, and redesign. The work is both formal and evocative as I’ve explored a variety of sculptural considerations. It can be solid or pliable, tall or tiny, lightweight or very dense as seen in the selection of images I submitted. The scale of the larger works invites me to consider opportunities for outdoor sculpture and public installation. As such, I’m developing ideas incorporating more permanent materials.
My current work centers on the use of multiple, wooden components requiring an upgraded bandsaw and drill press as well as numerous hand tools for woodworking. These items are essential. I’ve also started working with cast metal components and I require the equipment to finish those projects such as oxy-acetylene tanks for welding and brazing. An upgraded electric welder would assist in fabrication of armatures.
I believe upgrading my tools and equipment would allow me to further experiment with these materials as is my methodology and complete a new body of work continuing to move forward in my practice. Within this new body of work, I’m adding more crafted components which require more refined equipment.