Martha Russo
Professional Organizations:
Serve on the board or in an advisory capacity: Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Board Member; University of Colorado Fine Arts Alumni Advisory Board, Boulder, CO; University of Colorado, Artnauts collective, Boulder, CO; Jamestown Art Council, Jamestown, CO. Member of the following organizations: Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO; Denver Art Museum; International Sculpture Center; National Council for the Education of Ceramic Arts.
Areas of Specialization:
Ceramic and sculpture processes. My artistic work is object based and installation. I gravitate towards abstract sculptural works, immersive spaces, and the challenges of occupying architectural spaces.
What is your favorite thing about teaching at RMCAD?
My favorite things about teaching at RMCAD are the diversity of students' creative practices and the vibrancy and support of dedicated peers.
What is your favorite class or project to teach and why?
Anything that I am teaching is my favorite at that point. I really enjoy Ceramics I, as these students are mostly new to the ceramics process and the class revolves around opening up new ideas about how to work with clay. I also really love teaching Directed Studies/Sculpture and Senior Studio/Sculpture, because there are no assignments and the students are self-directed in their artistic pursuits. This is the time when they become artists. I also enjoy these classes because it is a time to help students prepare for the their graduation show.
Knowing what you know now, what’s the one piece of advice you would give to your college-aged self?
Drop everything and take advantage of all the wonderful visiting artists/designer/scholars that come to campus on a regular basis.
What prominent artist, scholar or designer in your field do you admire the most, and why?
Toshiko Takaezu- art professor at Princeton when I was an undergrad. She taught me how to work hard - really hard - and the importance of seeing as much art as possible.
Antonette Rosato and Garrison Roots - professors in grad school at CU Boulder. They taught me how to think expansively and to put up work in the most professional way possible, all the time. "There is always just enough time" and "Sleep when you are dead" are two quotes from them about really pushing yourself hard.
What are your greatest influences?
My husband, Joe Ryan, Toshiko Takaezu, Garrison Roots, Antonette Rosato, Elizabeth Faulhaber, Anish Kapoor, Annie Dillard's book, Living by Fiction, Jeanette Winterson, fiction, all kinds of music, reading the New York Times, being outside as much as possible, and moving.
Artist/teaching statement:
Before children have the language and cognitive skills to name an object, they explore the world with all of their senses. For instance, a chair is not a “chair” but rather something to climb on, to crawl under, to pile things on, and, perhaps even to lick. With the acquisition of language and the awareness of its intended purpose, the investigations dwindle and the senses simmer.
My hope is that people approach my work and stay with it because they are not quite sure what it is. Questions arise, such as: What is it made out of? What are those forms? How is it staying in space?
I make abstract organic sculptures and spaces to give people a place to let language and purpose slip away and to allow the senses to frolic, to delight, to muse.
Anything else?
Everything I do is an experiment. My hope is to impart upon students a sense of curiosity and courage, to find out through the making, and to make art that they are not sure will work and then figure it out with time, patience and smarts.