View Cindy Billingsley’s works featured on Ceramics Now Magazine
/ Featured in Ceramics Now Magazine – Issue Two
Art should come from the heart of the artist, it should engage the audience, it should connect with the community, it should start a dialog, a debate. It should get people to look at things in a way they have not thought of, or to see what they have looked at but not really seen. Art has to come deeply from the artist, there has to be raw emotion and honesty in the work if it is to connect with people. An Artist paints and sculpts what they know. These are all the reasons I wanted to do a show about Alzheimer’s disease. To start a dialog, to connect, to get people to understand what it is like to have the disease, it is a part of my life, so it is what I know, what I am around. I took those thoughts and feelings and transformed them into visuals to engage my audience.
I speak through paint and clay. Art is a look inside the artist, what I am feeling is transferred into the clay while I am sculpting, Those feelings have to go somewhere. I wanted to tell a story, I wanted you to feel how it is, the frustrations, humor, the compassion and the heartache of having Alzheimer’s disease and for the ones caring for one with this disease.
William Faulkner said it best ~ The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it it moves again since it is life.
The pose or look of an endangered animal or the presence of a figure in clay is what the artist is saying about a time, about a moment in nature or life, to reflect humanity to itself, to hold a mirror up to nature. I challenge you to look beyond the clay, to see what is hidden within. What does the art make you feel, can you see the life in the faces of both the animal and the human? Art gives us permission to think about the questions that we have. It is a way of expressing ourselves and our ideas. I must paint and sculpt the world I live in. I wanted to try and bring about more awareness to both subjects- the issues in our society and the plight of the endangered animals in our world. And with that awaken awareness we might just understand ourselves better.
Cindy Billingsley’s C.V. (resume) – View her works
PUBLIC ART PROJECTS
– Memorial Portrait mural of landscape and eight kids, Brentwood Library, Sept 2011
– Brentwood Library a Commission for 15 murals and 20 sculptures March 2009 – July 2010
– 7 Horse Jumps for World Equestrian Games Lexington, KY, 2010
– Arrington Firefighter Memorial, Bronze Relief, TN, 2003
– Warner Park nature Center 5 bronze sculptures, 1999
EXHIBITIONS AND SHOWS
– CAA Art fair, San Francisco, Oct. 2011
– solo show “Endangered Animals” Tennessee Art league Nashville, TN 2011
– solo show “Within The Mind” Tennessee Art league, Nashville, TN 2011
– Sawtooth Faculty show, June-July, 2011 Milton Rhodes art center, Winston Salem NC
– Metro Arts Commission Gallery, juried Local professional Artists show May 31 – August 5
– “Spectrum” Tom Rossietti Gallery April 2011 Judge’s Award for Sculpture
– NAWA show “Vistas, Views, and Visions”, Tom Rossetti Gallery, West Palm Beach, Fla. March 2011
– Folk Art Center, two person show, Aug. 14 – Oct. 5 2010, Asheville, Nc
– NAWA Member show 2010 New York City, New York June-July 2010
– Southern Highlands Washington DC Appalachian Regional Show June 2010 – June 2011
– Solo Show “Endangered” Piedmont Craftsmen Gallery Nov. 6-28, 09
– Large public year commission 15 murals and 20 sculptures Brentwood Library Jan 2009 – Mar 2010
– “Endangered” Gloria Kennedy Gallery, New York Jan- Feb. 28 2009
– Figurative Invitational 2008 LeQuire Gallery, Nashville, TN 2008
– 45th Anniversary Piedmont Craftsmen, Teapot Museum, Sparta, NC
– Art Envisions Science, Juried NAWA, NY Hall of Science May-June 2008
– Spring in Summer, National Assoc. of Women Artists, NY May-June 2008
– Figuratively Speaking, Piedmont Craftsmen Gallery June-July 2008
– 45th Anniversary Piedmont Craftsmen, Sawtooth Building June-Aug 2008
– Animals, Animals, Animals, invitational Hand in Hand Gallery May-July 2008
– Ohio Designer Craftsmen juried Best of 2008 May – Oct 2008
– Taught Figure Workshop, Appalachian Center for Crafts, Smithville, TN March 2008
– Tennessee Biennial Arts and Craft Exhibition, juried Customs House Museum Feb 2008
– Encore’ , juried New York Oct – Dec 2007
– The National Assoc. of Women Artists juried Member Exhibition, New Jersey 2007
– Botanical invitation, Sawtooth Building, Winston-Salem, NC June-July 2007
– Applied art vs. Fine Art, New York April 2007
– Rooted in Craft, Folk Art Center Gallery, Asheville, NC 2007
– Wildlife Show Invitation, Sawtooth Building, Winston-Salem, NC 2006
COMMISSIONS
– Portrait memorial painting Franklin Library Director, Franklin, TN 2011
– Dragon, Germany 2011
– Dragon, Jackson, TN 2011
– 2 portrait reliefs, North carolina, May 2011
– 2 Memorial Portraits of 16 year old that died, Nashville, April 2011
– Memorial Portrait sculpture of boy, March Nashville, 2011
– 20 sculptures of wildlife Brentwood Library 2009-2011
– Show Horse Portrait, Florida, 2007
– Numerous private portrait commissions both in sculpture and painting
EDUCATION / PORTFOLIO DEVELOPMENT
– Professional Artist working on Portfolio development for Wildlife Series and Figurative Series in Cookeville, TN studio 2002-2011
– Portfolio Development Columbus, Ohio 2000-2002 self study of techniques, processes, and finishes in clay.
– Working on Beth Cavener Stichter’s projects and with other graduate ceramists at OSU University. Painted finishes on Beth Cavener Stichter’s work in 2002 on sculptures : Feral Meat Goats, Reclining Rabbit, White Rabbit, Sleeping Boar, Black Rabbit, large Boar. Cast numerous paper pill bugs for – Robotics project, made molds and cast 70 small sculptures for her Senior thesis show. Also did sugar part of “No Tounge will tell”
– Apprentice Alan LeQuire 1994-2000 (working on numerous large scale projects, and Monumental Sculptures,casting, molding, training other workers in his studio) Work done on Women Right to Vote
– Monument, Jack Daniel’s Monument, Reliefs for Country Music Hall of Fame, Nashville Library Doors, Large relief in Nashville State Capital, and Dog sculpture for Butler’s run, Printer’s alley and Topiary of Buffaloes in Nashville.
– Paint Horse Jumps National for Top Horse Shows 1992-2010 with two companies: Jumps by Fuzzy,Franklin, Tn and Steve Stephen’s Designs, Tampa, Fla.
– Taught Figurative workshop at Appalachian Center for crafts 2008
– Portrait Artist 24 years ( portraits in Texas, Ohio, Florida, California, and Canada)
– Muralist 20 years (murals in Texas, Tennessee, Ohio, and Florida)
– Clay classes taken at Watkins School of Art classes in Portrait Sculpting, and Figurative Sculpting, 1992 and 1993
– Harris School of Art, Franklin, TN studied Fine Art and Illustration, 1983-1987
Visit Cindy Billingsley’s website.
→ View our featured ceramic artists list (posts).
→ Subscribe to our monthly newsletter and like our Facebook page if you want to stay in touch with us.
© Photographs, written works or other media, are subject to copyright and belong to the artist or to Ceramics Now Magazine. Cannot be used without permission.
