Corran Shrimpton

By combining the familiarity of the human form with unexpected elements, I make figurative ceramic sculptures that contend with the classical definition of the genre. My work externalizes and distorts emotion, inviting the viewer to investigate, empathize, and connect with it from a new perspective.

I am not satisfied sculpting the traditional figure. My figures battle against the long history of heroic male statues and nude females through the male gaze. While many of my pieces are of the female nude, they are not sexualized nor are they trying to conform to traditional beauty standards. Additionally, I experiment with how to infringe on the figure, whether it be a surface pattern, moving parts, compartments, segmented parts, or multiple figures in one. In everything I see and experience, I consider it’s potential in my work. When I come across patterns, color combinations, materials, everyday objects, animals or plants that evoke emotion, I think about how I might recontextualize it in relation to a figure. As a result, images of potential sculptures form in my head as emotional moments captured in time and I pursue the most exciting ones. By drawing from my own social and emotional experiences, the meaning of these visual combinations reveals itself to me over time.

My sculptures speak about that which people don’t often talk about in everyday pleasant conversation or advertise on social media. I am inspired by the quiet intimate moments one experiences in solitude. These are often emotional experiences related to anxiety and depression but also universal states such as loss, longing, hope and even boredom. By externalizing these feelings through countenance, distortion, and symbolic textures, I create sculptures that prompt the viewer to reexamine the relationship between their own physical body and emotional interiority.

-- Corran Shrimpton

Corran Shrimpton is from Syracuse, NY and received her BFA with a minor in Philosophy from Alfred University. She is the recipient of the Lisa Elwell Ceramic Artist Endowed Encouragement Award and has exhibited throughout the US. She has worked at the Saratoga Clay Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, NY and the Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach, FL as the Sculpture Artist in Residence.