Today we’d like to introduce you to Ginger Birdsey.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I was the child of storytellers. My daddy was funny and articulate. He was an artist, too, and he and my mother, who wrote stories and poems and little plays, surrounded themselves with artists, art historians, singers, and writers from diverse backgrounds and cultures. My house was a lively loud place.
My childhood was not typically southern. There were black-eyed peas and fried chicken during the week, but on weekends my parents experimented in food of other countries often with friends and always with music and singing in the background. It was loud, merry with good smells coming out of the kitchen. My Daddy was a Sunday afternoon painter, maker of anything needed and fixer of anything broken. He had a large studio were I was always welcomed. I often played on the studio floor, learned how to use tools and made and drew anything I wanted. I grew up with permission to explore multiple possibilities in art and life. Visual storytelling using ceramics as a medium became instinctively natural.
Please tell us about your art.
I painted and worked in collage in college, but one day, while in California, I walked into a studio in Sonoma, where a man was sitting at a wheel making cups. Mozart was playing in the background. It all seemed like magic. I knew at that moment I wanted to work in clay and began studying with Rick Berman. The wheel led me into hand building objects and figures. I took a workshop with Debra Fritts and my stories, dreams, and memories began to explode through the clay.
For 23 years, I taught art at the Paideia School, beginning the day at 8:30 in the morning with six-year-olds and ending in the afternoon with high school students going off to art schools. I loved the range of ages and learned from each age group an important part of storytelling. The young ones who live in the present moment activated a sense of stillness and play. Middle schoolers, who are always looking ahead, showed me where I needed to go. The high school students, who are in the act of leaving home, taught me to go back in the past and find pin points of emotional change. I am grateful to them.
I work intuitively shifting back and forth in time to tell a story. The open face and figure, and animals are often included with objects from nature and the every day. I hope the narratives I make in clay evoke an understanding of who are and allow us to feel the loss, love, and share the humor in our world’s difficult times. The young children, whom I taught, and I, as a young child, sit very still on my shoulder, urge and encourage me to keep on telling the story and continue to play.
Choosing a creative or artistic path comes with many financial challenges. Any advice for those struggling to focus on their artwork due to financial concerns?
It is almost impossible for artists to make a living wage today. Often, one has another job. There are paid internships and residences which offer some compensation, but they are highly competitive. Grant money, if one can get one, will last just so long. The struggle for the artist is to keep doing what their heart tells them, and just get by, or work hard to find other means of income, find a collector or patron, or at the last gasp, quit entirely.
If art was more valued by the local school systems and in turn by the general public, if buying art and supporting artists was a common activity, artists would be more valued, adults would be happier, and in general the communities would be better off. All evidence shows that this true, but visual art, theater, music, and drama and writing courses are consistently being down-sized or cut out entirely from schools. The mindset is one of “the arts are not worthy, just a frivolous pastime.” This needs to change. We have a responsibility to be vocal about all the arts being taught through the years in schools, and encourage agencies and businesses to offer more opportunities to artists, and underwriting more exhibits, thereby enriching and touching more people. We will all benefit.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
I have a big show and sale in my home during December and have participated in Fired Works in Macon, Ga. for several years. I am associated with DK gallery in Marietta, Ga, and Mudfire in Decatur.
Contact Info:
- Address: 220 Peachtree Circle
Atlanta, Ga. 30309 - Website: www.gingerbirdsey.com
- Phone: 404 892 7602
- Email: gingerbirdsey@gmail.com
- Instagram: gingerbirdsey
- Facebook: Ginger Birdsey
Image Credit:
Ginger Birdsey
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