Today we’d like to introduce you to Gabriella Becker Corter.
Hi gabriella, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Raised in Canada by an artist mother, I went to university in Vancouver and to art school in Toronto. I started out as a pet portrait artist and have been doing this ever since. After manifold pet portraits I pursued other subjects but almost always animals. (hearkening back to Darwin’s words: “Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equals.” Where would we all be without these guys! I currently have a Wall of Birds at my art studio at Artspace in Raleigh. It is my aim, encouraged by a fellow animal lover artist Jennifer Clifton, to fashion as many ceramic bird heads as I can this year–I am hoping into the hundreds. My feathered creatures are both fictional and representational. Oil painting, ceramic birds, and concrete and plaster lamps are what I focus on now. Many of my paintings are influenced by my active and lovingly destructive house rabbit Juniper.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Fortunately (of course it went hand in hand with hard work) I found a job as Education Assistant and art Instructor at Artspace. My studio is in the same location as my work, I get to be in my studio and work at my job in the same building. Luck!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I work at Artspace. This is a non-profit visual arts center in downtown Raleigh, featuring exhibitions, working artist studios, and community art classes. As an employee my team and I network with education and outreach around Raleigh bringing art to children around town. It is a great way to meet fellow art teachers and to support children of all ages. As the education assistant I also connect with artists and educators from many different parts of the world. I procure art supplies, assist in classrooms and engage with teachers and students. I learn about artists’ motivations, specialties and styles. This job is wonderful. I am endlessly learning new art techniques and meeting with new fun creative people. We all are helping each other teach, learn, grow and create. As far as my other work, making art, I am glad I can bring non human animals to the forefront. If you walk into my studio you will see little evidence of the human form. I am pleased emblematize our faunae.
What are your plans for the future?
I created a very large green ceramic octopus and he did not break in the multi step process. In the future I want to create large scale more complex sculptures. I would like to lean into abstraction of the non human creatures I discover on this planet. More birds, more sea creatures and indubitably…many rabbits.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://gabcorter.wixsite.com/website
- Instagram: @gabcorter
