Artist Statement
I am a teaching artist living in Catskill, NY. I work most with clay and paper, but find myself straying into different materials every few years or so. When I return to throwing on the wheel or sitting at my desk, tracing the shapes between my line work, I see how previous wanderings through different materials have nourished my practice. I have always been inspired by clippings from various sources, illustrations, photographs of architecture, and patterned papers. I am continuously drawn to texture and line work and how it translates on paper and in clay. I mix these elements, including hand carved stamps, to create collage ink works and ceramic pieces.
My collage work begins with an ink line drawing of something close by–a friend, a vegetable, plant or a cat. Once my lines are drawn, I might begin painting with watercolor; other times I decide to leave the canvas naked, with only black pen marks. I search for the perfect patterns, textures and color blocks of paper clippings to insert within my lines. I enjoy creating faux depth by the perfect selection of paper textures and colors, while also rendering things incredibly flat on the same canvas. Finding and using the right papers is key; I want viewers to have spaces where they’re drawn in to the color and texture combinations, wondering if it’s blended or painted. I also wish for them to move their eye a little to the left, and see it’s clearly paper. If the leaf has a pattern of leaves on it, it’s not realistic, and hopefully it makes you smile a bit.
My ceramic work tends to be functional with form and surface designs influenced by pattern, textures and motifs. The shape or handle will flair to match a detail on the surface. Many of my surface designs come from my handmade stamps or illustrations. My glazing techniques tend to layer textures and colors. I experiment with well known commercial glazes and underglazes, which are most accessible to the “hobby artist”. I work out of my second bedroom at home and I usually have access to an electric kiln. In the ceramic world, these options can seem limiting. I am constantly asking: how can I repurpose the accessible and change the standard outcomes of these glazes. I do a lot of experimenting with layers and mixing and texture to achieve a uniqueness.
Teaching Artist Statement
The “Accessible” and the “Common” feed into my art practice as it feeds into my teaching practice. The materials, to create with, come from what is available around us. We can make art, even when we think we don’t have much. Our lives are filled with materials and resources to make with. Look around, recyclables in the bin? Rocks at the river front? Fallen leaves? Some crayons and grape juice? It can all be used to create something for yourself. It’s M.C. Richards who said, “The creative spirit creates with whatever material is present. With food, with children, with building blocks, with speech, with thoughts, with pigment…We are not craftsmen only during studio hours. Any more than a man is only wise in a library…” It’s up to all of us to cultivate that creative spirit.
Cultivating that creative spirit means involving others. Our growth as an individual is intertwined with our interdependence within community. My teaching experiences make it clear we can find inspiration by creating together and building things together. We are given purpose when each person can find a job in making. We cultivate connection and growth when we’re given purpose. An Artist can be a mediator who sprouts a creative spirit within others; and that spirit manifests through material, but also through collaboration.
My desire as an Art Educator is to engage groups of people to learn about themselves while working together. To instill that, together, we can create a beautifully crafted object. Individually we can build on the skills that are accessible to each of us. I wish for more people to walk away from my classes feeling as though they are an artist. I aim to reassure that anyone’s skill set is enough. We can create beauty together and each of us will be better for it.
Biography
Josephine Dzielski is a teaching artist in Catskill, NY, mainly creating works on paper and in clay. She grew up in Rochester, NY and found herself staying in the Hudson Valley region after attending SUNY New Paltz. She lives with her wife, dog named Gracie Marie, and two cats, Sir Thomas and Penny Dreadful (who is not really dreadful).
Her teaching artist career is focused on advocacy and community building through vocational training and craft work with adults with different abilities. She currently works as the supervisor and teacher at Triform Camphill Community Day Habilitation Program. Her job responsibilities include planning and facilitating therapeutic, vocational and educational services for people with different abilities. She manages two staff members and various volunteers. Previous positions at Triform began in 2014, first as an Americorps volunteer for two years, an afternoon teacher in arts, advocacy and life-skills classes and the Pottery Teacher and Vocational work leader. She has worked on various projects in relationship to Triform’s administration including formatting and sending out schedules, creating a programmatic and human rights handbook for participants and helping with craft sales and outreach.
She has received three Bachelor degrees (yes…three) from the State University of New York at New Paltz: during her first go in 2013, she received a Bachelor of Science in Visual Arts and a Bachelor of Art in French and returned to become a certified teacher, finishing in 2018, she received her Bachelor of Science in Arts Education. She mulls over applying towards a higher level degree in Art Therapy, Social Work or the Arts, but for now, she seeks to find all that she has learned in academics, where it exists, unnamed and profound, within day to day experiences.
Previous professional experiences include being a part of a team of teaching artists at Art Omi for their educational program including Saturday Art Workshops, Winter, Spring and Summer Camps for kids ages 5-12. Working as a live-in care-giver and DSP worker for Camphill Hudson, substitute teaching at the Hudson City School District and working for COARC—Columbia County Arc foundation.
Internships and Assistantships include, a year teaching English in France through a program called TAPIF, experience as an intern at Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, one of the first galleries in the state of New York to specialize in Chinese Contemporary Art; interning at the Bausch and Lomb Archives. The Archive’s store the history of the B+L enterprise as well as holding and exhibiting a large number of artworks showcasing their involvement within the Arts internationally and within the surrounding community for decades. She has also promoted Brookside Farm through social media and advertised for an Art Studio in Le Mans, France called Arts et Couleurs in lieu of a work exchange.
Josephine Dzielski has participated in Art Omi’s Teaching Artist Residency in 2018 and 2019. She has exhibited in the SUNY New Paltz rotunda space for the Foundations Show, selected works of students in their first year of study; the Wood Design show, showcasing selected works created during the coursework of Basic Wood and Wood Design and Techniques; the Bachelors of Science Graduation Exhibition, a student curated and managed exhibition of self chosen artworks, as well as, participated in vendor and craft fair exhibitions through Triform Camphill Community.
She aspires to consolidate her teaching practices with adults with different abilities, focused on craft work, advocacy and community interdependence, into some sort of illustrated text one day.
W. Main Handmade 