Q&A with alumna artist Celia Gerard '91

Celia Gerard '91 is an artist who displayed a drawing in Chapin's art case during the month of September. She also visited with the Upper School class "Drawing and Design" to show and discuss her work. Before her visit, Celia answered some questions about her work and her life.

Did your interest in art begin early? Did you find a love for a particular medium while at Chapin, or did it come later?

Yes. My mom is a photographer and kept a darkroom in our apartment, so art-making has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My aunt is an artist, as was my grandmother, my great-aunt, my great-grandmother — it goes on. So I guess one could say there is an artistic gene in our family! While at Chapin I was interested in theater. I was Peter Pan in the seventh-grade play and loved drama club. In ninth grade, I started devoting time to studying painting and drawing, and later, in college, I developed a love for sculpture.

You work in sculpture and in drawing. How do you balance working in the two mediums? Does working in one inform working in the other?

For me, drawing is about something tactile, something felt with all of my senses rather than something simply seen with my eyes and processed in my mind. So yes, for me, sculpture and drawing are closely related, and I do think the two mediums inform each other through the working process.

In your artist’s statement, you mention “embracing accident and chance.” How so? Do you ever invent or follow algorithms in your work, in the spirit of the Dadaists or John Cage?

I am interested in systems but don’t intentionally implement them while making my work, though I do set up situations that are likely to produce unknown outcomes. John Cage’s work — both his music and his drawings — has been an influence. I am also currently interested in the Greek composer and architect Xenakis, who worked closely with Cage and Le Corbusier.

What work – visual art or otherwise – inspires you?

There is so much that inspires me, from the architecture that surrounds us in New York City, to ancient Egyptian sarcophagi, to Xenakis, to Piero della Francesca, to the late atelier paintings by Georges Braque, to the graffiti on the wall near my studio in Brooklyn, to Elizabeth Bishop’s poetry, to Chopin, to name a few. It’s really difficult to narrow it down.

Do you have designs or ideas that are leading you to a new body of work, or do you plan to continue to work with a “language of shapes” for some time to come?

I have been working on some new sculpture that I plan to exhibit with drawings in my show, which opens at Sears Peyton Gallery in January.

How have you maintained, throughout the years, a balance between making a living and making your own work?

I have to be very disciplined about making enough time for studio work — it’s a very slow process, and it’s too easy to let the rest of life take over. I think I have a better grasp of how to keep things balanced now. I am a part-time professor, and I have been fortunate to be able to sell my work through a gallery. But it’s not easy. I’ve had numerous jobs over the years in a variety of fields, from waitressing to window-dressing to managing the education department at the Rubin Museum of Art. I still can’t believe I am actually making a living doing what I most love to do.

Do you have any advice for students who want to pursue art?

It’s important that you love making art and are willing to make sacrifices to do it. Don’t expect the outside world to give you reasons to make work. You have to find the motivation to work somewhere inside yourself. And work hard: Make something everyday, no matter what.