Cora Witt

Name of School
University of Alaska Fairbanks

Expected Graduation Date:
12/15/2021

Faculty Nominator
Wendy Croskrey

Reason for Faculty Nomination
I am pleased to nominate Cora Witt for the Windgate Fellowship and awards program. In December of 2021, Cora Witt presented her thesis show during the semester she graduated. I teach design, drawing, and sculpture as a Professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In that capacity, I observed her performance as a student. Cora Witt is a dedicated student and excels in applying different cognitive modes of thought to her projects. She uses various materials to show therianthrope and human encroachment of nature effectively. There is a fragility to the animal and human figures delicately crafted out of pater-thin membranes of clay that mimic this tenuous relationship. She is active in exhibiting her work and would benefit from an experience that would allow her to expand her knowledge. In addition, I find her enthusiasm and motivation refreshing

Please provide a brief description of your art or medium.
Ceramics, animal parts, found natural elements ranging from twigs to java moss.

Is your artwork handmade by you? If not, please explain
Yes, all of it is.

Are all or some of the components locally sourced?
Well, the local clay banks are too removed and expensive to harvest local clay (and my figurines require a specific blend of materials), but everything else is as local as it gets. I drive a truck specifically so I can stop for roadkill, and I rarely go for a hike in my neighborhood – a system of semi-abandoned trails cut by old gold miners, and maintained by equestrians, dog sleds, mountain bikers, and nerds like me. I’m hoping to have some time this summer to go a bit farther south, and hit the Alaska Range, to get some sun-bleached spruce wood, and some oceanic fossils on this one wash off the Rainbow Mountains (I can’t tell you where, or it wouldn’t be a secret any more).

Artist’s Statement:
One of the most important components of my work is that humans are not an aberration of nature, but its climax: stewards, partaking in a universe beyond our control or true comprehension. It is extremely important to me, therefore, to create works that bring people closer to themselves by blending organic textures and concepts with the human figure, then combining that figure with a natural setting. Empathy is invoked at first by the figure, whose abstract appearance enhances the suggestion of their postures, and is impacted by subtle symbolism in the pedestal (ranging from Victorian era flower meanings to the protective curve of a cobblestone wall to a figure whose color and texture scheme is an inversion of a nearby tree stump). Ultimately, my purpose is to bring people to a meditative state where they can see themselves in something else, using nature and humanity as counterpoint.

How you will use the Fellowship funds if you are chosen as the winner.
Well, driving a pickup truck halfways across the largest state in the Union to collect mountainous wood and fossils can be kind of expensive, not to mention the cost of heating my studio (I live in a one-room dry cabin in a swathe of mid-altitude boreal forest; the studio generally takes up about half the floorspace, but I do have days where all the furniture is covered in art in progress). Also, my clay costs more to ship per pound than it does to actually purchase…not to mention how high the electric for my kilns can be. Various other expenses include my impending need to rent a storage unit (I’ve got a local gallery in 2023, so I have to keep my work in one safe place until then) and finish tanning and preserving the various dead animals in my chest freezer (freezer occupancy is around 60% art materials).