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TownOnline.com - Arts Lifestyle: Wellesley College music instructor expands artistic horizons

TownOnline.com - Arts Lifestyle: Wellesley College music instructor expands artistic horizons
Amber Swift  |  by www2.townonline.com. All rights reserved. 10.11 | 17:09

After 20 years as a successful classical musician and music instructor at Wellesley College, Suzanne Stumpf decided to flex her creative muscles and begin working as a ceramic artist and sculptor.

It is something I wanted to do all my life but I never had the time because of my music career, says Stumpf. Finally, I decided to take a ceramics course and I just couldn't stop.

I worked during every spare moment and found I couldn't work fast enough for the ideas that kept emerging.

Within a short period, her pieces began to garner national recognition. She was named one of nine 2005 Emerging Artists by Ceramics Monthly magazine, which featured her work in the May 2005 issue.

She was awarded Second Prize in the Strictly Functional Pottery National show in Lancaster, Pa., and won Honorable Mention at the Arts Worcester Biennial.

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Stumpf's work has also been selected for several prestigious exhibitions; including the National Prize Art Show by the Cambridge Art Association, the New England artist' juried show Blue, the Vitrified Clay National in Rockport, Texas, the Jersey Shore National in Surf City, New Jersey, the 25th Annual July National Art Exhibition in Southport, N.

C., the 18th National Juried Art Exhibition in Mableton, Ga., and the Kent State 6th Annual National Juried Cup Show in Ohio.

Her work has also been featured in several juried exhibitions sponsored by Arts Worcester and has been chosen for additional shows throughout the United States.

Stumpf has been especially delighted by the permanence of creating three-dimensional art. As a musician, my art takes place in the temporal world - you play a note, then it is gone, says Stumpf.

Sculpting in ceramics allows me to explore a visual side of my creativity which did not have an outlet in my music

She also found creating artwork with physical permanence to have its own challenges. To create something permanent is very exciting but also terrifying at the same time, Stumpf says. This made me a perfectionist about my decisions early on, because I was going to have to live with what I created or destroy it.

Stumpf also finds that her music has been enriched by her sculptural work. Seeing the physical, three-dimensional aspect of an object helps me to create in the temporal world of music, she says. Stumpf and her husband, Daniel Ryan, are co-founders and members of the Musicians of the Old Post Road, a chamber music ensemble.

During their performances, they recreate an authentic 18th-century concert experience by playing period music on historically accurate instruments, often at 18th-century locations along the Old Post Road; such as Emmanuel Church in Boston, First Parish Church in Wayland and First Parish Church in Sudbury.

Read more on by www2.townonline.com. All rights reserved.
Keywords: First Parish, Old Post, Parish Church, National Juried, First Parish Church, Arts Worcester, Wellesley College, Art Exhibition
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