Carrianne Hendrickson

Carrianne Hendrickson is a regional sculptor and craft artist. Her works are imaginative and often whimsical, imbued with symbolic meaning. Hendrickson was born near Seneca Lake, New York. She first became interested in Buffalo when her older brother came to attend a summer workshop in film and photography at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She was inspired by his descriptions of "the train station and the intriguing industrial landmarks" (Hendrickson). Soon after, she moved to Buffalo to attend college. The shift from the rural environment where she grew up to an urban center was "quite an abrupt transition" for Hendrickson, but it didn't keep her from being an active part of the arts culture of the Western New York region. Hendrickson earned a Bachelor of Science degree in ceramic design at the SUNY College at Buffalo, N.Y. (Buffalo State) in 1997 and completed art education certification coursework in the year 2000.

Hendrickson has worked in various capacities to support and further her artistic goals. She has taught at Buffalo State, Daemen College, and the State University of New York at Buffalo. In recent years she has worked as a teaching artist in a human services art program for adults with developmental disabilities.

Many of her sculptures and drawings are populated with anthropomorphic creatures including goat woman and rabbit boy, to name two. The viewer finds these unique figures in dream states, compromising situations, and at moments in their lives when the path to take veers off into fantasy. There are also hidden messages with these works that return one to childhood stories and visions of the world from that fragile state. We are cast back to a time when the human link to the animal world seemed quite real and fascinating. One example is What Happens When She Reads. In this non-functional teapot, a frog companion shares the intense excitement of escaping the everyday as it and a young rabbit girl plummet into the stories placed before them. Their lack of acknowledging the outside world and each other heightens the feeling of nostalgia one has for the blissful state when reading a book is the sole occupation for hours.

In an artist's statement, Hendrickson describes why she loves to create art:

"Art helps me find
a sense
of place
within the ordinary.
It gives me
great satisfaction,
a sense of solace,
and inner rewards
that are too profound
to explain." [1]

Hendrickson's ceramic pieces have been included in various exhibitions and publications, including a solo exhibit entitled Contemporary Narratives in Clay at the Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University in 2005, at the echo art fair in Buffalo, NY in 2013 and in Teapots! 7th invitational exhibit at the Morgan Contemporary Glass Gallery, in Pittsburgh, Penn.

To see more of Carrianne Hendrickson's work, go to her website at:

https://carriannehendrickson.com/home.html

[1] Carianne Hendrickson, undated artist's statement.

Carrianne Hendrickson