Today we’d like to introduce you to Aviva Alter.
Aviva, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
As far back as I can remember I wanted to be an artist. Growing up in Waukegan I was fortunate to have a few wonderful high school art teachers who started me on that path to becoming an artist. I continued my education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1973-77 where I studied ceramics and met my husband Alan Lerner. After leaving SAIC I decided to make and sell pottery as a career. I had an apprenticeship with The Big Hart Pottery for one year before I went on to form a pottery studio with my husband.
We went on to have a career making and selling decorative and functional ceramics across the country. After 20 years of we both wanted a change. I wanted to find a career that was more secure let me be more creative. I began working at Lill Street, an art center in Chicago that I was very involved with. I eventually became a director and had great opportunities meeting artists and educators who worked in clay but also many other media including the fiber arts. During that period I did not make art but I did expand my ideas and knowledge about using materials and experiencing the works of artists who became influential to me.
The event that sparked my need to make my own art was the death of my mother. She died of breast cancer in 2006. It was very difficult to watch her deterioration and see her living with pain. The only way I felt I could express myself and maintain a closeness with my mother was to find a way to memorialize her life. I began by using the clothes she had worn and hand stitched text to explore my feelings about her life and her death.
The next event that shaped my art happened while attending a workshop on Crochet Coral Reef where I met project founders Christine and Margaret Wertheim. This project is about the coral reef systems around the world becoming damaged and destroyed by the impact of the pollution and our misuse of our oceans. Working on this project I became even more aware of the life and death of organic systems.
My current work began with my obsession with gathering discarded bits of information, assembling and reassembling them to create an order of my own invention. While focusing on processes that disguise the original function of the found objects, these forms become amalgamations of broken bits and pieces of my world making me feel that I am able to leave a footprint. Much of the time I struggle to find a place that I can function and make some sense of this world. This body of work serves as a kind of bond signifying a confluence of my experiences that I can use to be present as I pass through life.
I construct my work by combining found and repurposed items using glue, cloth, and thread as a binder for these materials. I then piece these objects together in an organic fashion, using processes that mark time by wrapping and stitching them in a repetitive manner. Each found object has a specific appearance or emotional connection that influences my decision-making process in the formation of my art.
At this point in my life making art is essential to me. My work has been exhibited both in the US and abroad. My exhibitions include Hyde Park Art Center, Fiber Focus Design, Womanmade Gallery, Jan Cicero Gallery, Martha Schneider Gallery, the Illinois State Museum as well as the Science Museum in Dublin Ireland and most recently at Firecat Projects in Chicago.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Being an artist is not an easy task in terms of establishing oneself. I traveled many paths, a crafts artist, an administrative arts professional and finally fine artist. I think the hardest part is to find venues to show my work, while I do not have permanent gallery representation, Chicago has many galleries and opportunities that I have been able to take advantage of.
In terms of making a living, Making a living as in Ceramics and Arts Administrator was a lot easier than as a fine artist. I do make things that I can sell that are in the craft arena to sell along with my artwork.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Aviva Alter story. Tell us more about the business.
I am not sure what really sets me apart as an artist, all artists I know make work they feel strongly about and continue to understand some part of the life they live. My materials are not new in the arts, but I do use anything that I can find to make my objects. I try to use things I find that are discarded or ready to be discarded. I like to work in the place between beauty and ugly in an intimate manner.
I am very proud that I work almost every day whether I have an upcoming exhibition or not. My daily practice as an artist is central to my life.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I think everything is about our luck, good or bad, I find it is what we do with that luck. I was lucky to born into a family that supported my desire to be an artist. I have always had what I materially needed yet many times I have chosen a path that did not require many things. I have worked hard to overcome both personal and professional obstacles.
Looking back my life feels fairly linear but I have gone down many seemingly dead ends to find a way to use that difficulty to find strength. I have been most lucky to have my marriage of 41 years to a person that has challenged my ideas and supported my decisions, in our lives together and the art I make.
Pricing:
- my prices range from 400. up to 3000.
Contact Info:
- Address: 4320 N. Bell Ave. Chicago IL 60618
- Website: avivaalter.com
- Phone: 773-771-4624
- Email: avivastitch@gmail.com
- Instagram: @avivastitch
- Facebook: Aviva Alter
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