JUNCTURE: New Sculpture by Kristin Schimik

SEATTLE - Dec. 10, 2013 - PRLog -- JUNCTURE: New Sculpture by Kristin Schimik opens to the public on Saturday, January 11 and continues through January 31, 2014. The artist's opening reception is scheduled for Friday, January 10 from 6-8 pm. Regular gallery hours are Tuesday - Friday, 11 am - 5 pm. The Gallery at Pottery Northwest is centrally located between Denny Ave. and Thomas Street in Lower Queen Anne at 226 First Avenue North, Seattle.

Kristin Schimik is interested in exploring the intersection of physical matter and energy. She constructs ceramic sculpture and mixed-media installation with sensitivity to the interplay between texture and space. Quiet and subtle at first glance, her work offers a means to experience complex and delicate relationships between material surfaces.

Sparked by intuitive guidance, Schimik's work evolves through scientific inquiry, contemplation, meditation, and ritual. She is intrigued by the process of stellar nucleosynthesis in which "metals are born in the burning hearts of stars." She states (in the essay Quiet Fires of All Degrees, 2012):

"On the shoreline of creation, iron pulsates, lapping at the edge of the possible. My own pounding heart echoes and emits these patterns of the combined urgency of creation, destruction, combustion, and inspiration." "There is value in questioning the origin of something, tracing the experience of beauty towards a deeper source. Where did it come from? And where is it going?"

For JUNCTURE, Schimik has focused her practice on the ancient Sri Yantra while considering the place where creation and destruction meet. Primarily working in clay, she also utilizes mixed media to construct a broader space for contemplation within the gallery.

Schimik received a M.F.A. degree in Ceramic Sculpture from the University of Florida. Originally from Michigan, she now lives and works in Seattle, Washington. Kristin was awarded a grant from 4Culture SiteSpecific in 2013 for the Infinity Loop Project, a outdoor installation located beside the last remaining structure from the Renton coal mine. Prior to joining Pottery Northwest, she has worked as an Artist in Residence at the Santa Fe Art Institute, Caldera Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts. The artist's website is: kristin-schimik.weebly.com.