BIOGRAPHY

Sara Ransford received her BFA from CU Boulder (1984), where she studied under Betty Woodman and Anne Currier. She has been an artist in residence, and faculty at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, CO, and has taught her paper clay workshops across Colorado and Hawaii. In 2001 she attended Alfred University, and in 2011 was awarded The Red Brick 2011 Artist Tribute. Her exhibition record includes the Aspen Art Museum, Arvada Center for the Arts, Carbondale Clay Center, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Santa Fe Clay, San Angelo Center for the Arts in Texas, Western Colorado Center For The Arts, Las Cruces Museum of Art, and the Foothills Art Center, among others. In 2017, she was chosen as one of the artists represented in the Colorado ArtBeat film series with a show culminating at the The Launchpad in Carbondale. Her work is carried by The Harvey Preston Gallery and The Michael Warren Contemporary Gallery. 

ARTIST STATEMENT

Fascinated by the forces of erosion and deposition I discover during my travels, my paper clay sculptures explore the impact of vulnerability, protection and duplicity. Paramount, is waters impact on us- as a necessary life source, and alternately- resulting in terrifying, life changing events.  The remarkable beauty of desert canyon walls reveal historical marks left by horrific water events. Or how the landscape is permanently altered from human irrigation systems. Notably as a clay artist the presence of water in clay allows us to mold forms, only to be chemically turned to stone with the absence of water (and the addition of fire-pyrogirl!). 

Significant events occur in nature and in our lives, past events are exposed, new paths emerge, and events out of our control can permanently alter a river’s course, or respectively impact us for generations. Negative space represents the impressions of past events, past relationships, words not said, the space between us -as I seek to provoke mystery through the interaction of separate elements. Using the tension and harmony I witness in nature as a metaphor for a window into our subconscious, the surprising strength of paper clay allows me to explore those disparate relationships by incorporating torn and fragile, repetitive components; ultimately representing the monumentality of even the most intimate, complex, and vulnerable of spaces.

Website: pyrogirlaspen.com