Allison Wade

How did you get into making art?

I didn’t truly immerse myself in artmaking until my mid-30s. I was working in financial services, taking continuing education courses in various media, and I realized what I was doing in these classes suited me much better than what I was doing 50+ hours a week. I rented a studio, started working on my own, and made plans to go back to school. It was a huge risk and a lot of work. Thankfully, I kept with it.

What are you currently working on?

I have been working mostly with ceramics for the past few months. Since I teach during the school year, and clay is such a time-sensitive medium, summer allows me the flexibility to babysit the clay, to respond to it as I work on distinct sculptures and components for mixed media pieces. I plan on combining the ceramics with metal frames and woven structures I’ve been making over the past year. I’m also using the sculptural elements as subject matter for realistic still life drawings – an exciting new direction since I haven’t drawn from life in years.

What inspired you to get started on this body of work?

My studio is overfilled with the larger, mostly freestanding work from my last show, so available space is influencing the scale of these new pieces, which are smaller wall- and table-based arrangements. I am also learning to use a loom I was gifted years ago and enjoying the challenge of figuring out how the woven elements will function in the work.

Do you work on distinct projects or do you take a broader approach to your practice?

I create what I’d consider “families” of work that tend to be unified by material, color and other formal choices. Often these series are generated in loose response to a particular space. I think about how the pieces will relate to each other, how people will encounter them. The sculptures are made by combining elements from my stockpiles of hand-made objects. I don’t have a plan for the individual components when making them, just an intuitive desire to see them materialize.

What’s a typical day like in your studio?

No day is typical for me. I’ve finally accepted that I am a binge worker, and my focus and work schedule is cyclical. At any given time, I might be working between four different places: the metals studio where I am a member, a ceramics studio where I take classes, the woodshop where I teach, and my studio where I draw, weave and sew and all the pieces come together. My partner suggested that I start having studio visits out of my trunk!

This summer, I spent two weeks at the Loghaven Artist Residency and relished my daily routine, which included an hour of drawing followed by weaving and collaging fabric. I was reminded how important drawing is to my practice. The freedom to think through structural logic, composition, and color in two dimensions is both informative and gratifying.

Who are your favorite artists?

My partner, my friends, my colleagues — watching the work of people in my community shift and develop over time is hugely influential to my own practice. As for artists I currently admire from afar, I have huge art crushes on Arlene Schechet, Diane Simpson, Michelle Segre and the late Betty Woodman. Additionally, I’ve always been drawn to art environments, like those of Emery Blagdon (currently housed at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center) and Noah Purifoy, whose site outside of Joshua Tree blew me away when I saw it last year.

Where do you go to discover new artists?

Galleries, Instagram, Hyperallergic, Contemporary Art Daily, Bookstores. I also look to designed objects and architecture for inspiration.