Katherine Forer: A Love of Architecture and Clay
by H. John Johnsen
January/February 2003
Clay Times Magazine
As in her life, Kathy Forer likes clay because of its flexible, yielding and resistant (hardening) qualities. Her own resistance to the formalities of art has led her on a quest for her own identity and design form. “Clay is receptive and often forgiving with its chameleon-like style, which is adaptable and transformative. I like the development of the process – the journey from a malleable material to one that has been created in your mind and is now a reality.”
Her beginnings with clay were at a young age, while her influence was from the forms of Classicism and the 19th century sculptures of Rodin and Barye. These artists gave her the desire to sculpt standing figures. Her senior class project was to study figure modeling at the Art Student’s League in NYC. Under the careful, attentive watch of Jose de Creeft (the creator of the Alice in Wonderland sculpture in Central Park, NY) she began an education that would take her into developing her own techniques and style. José emphasized the directness of materials and technique as well as the unity of form. His teaching was influential in Forer’s education into clay. “My time at ASL with José and drawing with Robert Hale, Gregory d’Alessio and Gustav Rehberger gave me a sense of context for the development of style and technique. Drawing assumed great importance for my work. Hale taught a terrific class in anatomy. Rehberger showed how to do drawings with a much looser style, while d’Alessio taught intense eye-hand coordination.” Forer also took architectural classes in color, form and space. “I enjoyed learning the isometric, perspective drawing and architectural model making skills. These lessons have helped with my creativity in clay, but most importantly, I learned the combined perspectives of three different approaches to art through drawing from these teachers.”
A summer in the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture taught Forer to break with the past and forge ahead into new territory. Skowhegan has a nine-week summer residential program in Maine and is where developing artists can grow, experiment, critique and learn from other artists in residence. Its renowned fresco studio was another area that Forer dabbled in for a while. “I loved the process of putting pigment into freshly made lime plaster. It was fresh and immediate – like a bridge between sculpture and painting – and it encouraged me to continue to paint my clay sculptures.”
Next was a two-year run at the New York Studio School that led Forer into the world of relief sculpture. “This was a very intense studio program. We’d sculpt in the natural light until the twilight was extinguished. This unique course was a 4-hour morning drawing session and a 4-hour afternoon sculpture/painting class each week, followed by lectures and critiques. I was finally getting a handle on my own work when I saw what could be done with relief sculpture.
Her studio is located in a basement in a home by a creek. “There’s a 15-foot deep terrace in front and then a steep drop to Clay Pit Creek. I’ve gathered some of the clay. I’m not sure of the type, but a company called Ceramic Supply sells a similar clay and calls it Red Bank Red.” Her studio is a 30′ x 40′ walk-in basement space with large glass doors that bring in lots of light and present a view of the creek and surrounding area.
The space is actually split into six bays marked by lolly columns that hold up the house. Half is used for creating works and the other half for storage. There is an old cast iron slop sink with a hydrocal table and a large worktable in the middle of one section. The northern two bays have a 40-inch high work shelf and several rollable studio stands. An area under a small window is set aside for drawing and painting. The front, middle bay contains a fair amount of light and has a low, wide turntable and several smaller stands for making the reliefs. The back, middle bay has sculpture storage and repair table. “I’ve picked up tables from all over the streets of New York. Some are really nice and others look like they came out of a Van Gogh painting or Picasso studio. The front, southeast bay holds all my tools, materials, solvents, paints, wood and wire.“
Presently Forer rents kiln space from another ceramic artist. “I will eventually have my own kiln, but feel it would be appropriate to have it in an out-building or even outside the studio, but for now I am happy with the renting arrangements.” Her creations start from small, observed details, which are often figures, and then she proceeds by filing out the base dimensions of a chosen support in horizontal or vertical relief. “I like to sketch out my work while trying not to rely too much on any preconceived ideas. I develop it as I go. I add clay while building walls with a modified coil and rubble method. I work with a lot of different clay tools such as scrapers, wood, saw blades, large looped scrapers (from a retired church modeler in Italy), and an old wooden hairbrush handle (from José). Forer uses pre-glaze colors that she paints onto the greenware and even into the wet clay. She also uses various homemade slips to detail a sculpture. “I keep a few containers of clay colors and use them like a paint after the base clay has been wet. I’ve also used white stoneware clay to add detail to red. Sometimes I’ll just add a thin wash of another color clay.“ She fires most of her pieces at a basic cone 06 bisque fire. “Because my sculptures are unevenly thick and thin, I am very careful to wait and dry the clay over a long period of time, up to a year if necessary.”▪️◽️
Process Notes
• When sealing a plaster piece mold, Forer uses vaseline cut with 1/2 kerosene, but prefers to use a tincture of green soap lathered into the plaster and rinsed off three times so that the water will bead up.
• Forer creates color in her pieces by using various media such as shoe polish, powdered pigments, milk, gold leaf, oil paints, cold glazes, stains and alkyd paints. She has even used nail polish, lipstick, and food coloring. “I do a lot of adding and removing of pigments before I’m satisfied with the final results.” Surface treatments vary from linseed oil, shellac and furniture floor wax; her favorites are underglaze colors that are once-fired into the clay at bisque temperatures. Forer applies pigment with a rag and wipes it off at the same instant or moments later. Her wax technique consists of using fine furniture wax. “I prefer Goddard’s or Renaissance Micro-Crystalline Wax Polish. In a pinch, I will use Butcher’s Wax, although it has a tendency to burn out dark when it is applied. I apply the wax with a bristle brush to the fired piece warmed by a propane torch. Or I’ll put the wax on cold with a brush or cloth and then use the torch to smooth out the surface and make the wax seep into the fine areas.” She also uses paraffin wax with crayons and other colors added for pigment.