Meet Corinne Peterson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Corinne Peterson.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
Working with clay connects me to my early roots of growing up on a Minnesota farm.
In many ways my childhood was idyllic. I delighted in the trees, fields, rocks and animals. But there was a dark side. After experiencing trauma, I hid parts of me that I feared would upset my family and others.

I came to Chicago to earn a bachelor’s degree from North Park College. I married, raised a family, then attended and graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a master’s degree. I began a career in psychotherapy. Shortly after that, I divorced, moved into Chicago and remarried.

In dealing with the turmoil of these years, I was helped by Jung’s ideas about healing and wholeness. I decided to study Jungian psychoanalysis to enhance my effectiveness as a therapist. To qualify, I needed two years of analysis, which meant listening to what my dreams could teach me about myself. One day I dreamed about clay and my analyst suggested I try working with it. That’s how in 1986 I landed in a ceramics class at Lillstreet Art Center (now at Ravenswood and Montrose) in Chicago.

With clay in my hands, I became like a kid again. The experience of clay was so valuable for me that I changed direction again. I cancelled the study plan and eventually quit my psychotherapy practice to be a fulltime artist.

I set up my studio at Lillstreet, where I have worked ever since. Since 1996, I have taught a class entitled Dreams, Myths, Stories in Clay Handbuilding. I’ve shown my work widely in both solo and group exhibits.

My sculptures are now included in many public, corporate and private collections. My murals are installed in schools, hospitals, parks and other public places in the Chicago area.

Several residencies were valuable to my career. The Ragdale Foundation gave me space to explore drawing and encaustic painting. A residency in Taipei, Taiwan, exposed me to ceramics and ceramic artists in another culture. In 2012 I was invited for a residency at Tegelgården, Sweden. In Sweden and then Norway, I visited the places of my ancestors, with their ancient standing stones, forests, farms, and families. I came home determined to slow down my sculpting process to allow deeper reflection.

The most important outcome of my Nordic exploration was the Cairn Project, which I began in 2014. A dream of small black clay rocks reminded me of trauma. When I remembered the ancient burial cairn I saw in Sweden, I visualized making a contemporary memorial cairn out of clay rocks that expressed pain and loss. I decided to pair my social work self with my art self and lead workshops, where participants could make the needed rocks. I could offer others the chance to mold clay to express their pain.

Please tell us about your art.
Dreams are what got me into clay and they still influence the sculptures I create. They clue me in to the multiple layers, twists and turns that make up my life.

My earliest sculptures included depictions of objects or people, often representing some aspect of me. They were surrealistic views of dreams. An example is Grave, a black half egg with broken sticks on top. The dream suggested I had buried a part of myself during childhood traumas. Making the artwork helped me grieve the absence of that part of myself and appreciate how I was coming to life as I sculpted clay. I explored egg symbols and mythical references to create the Cosmic Egg series. In a similar way, other dreams sparked sculpture series.

In time, I began to work mainly with natural or architectural forms, such as rocks, walls, and building fragments. Most people know me for freestanding sculpture. I also do a lot of work to be hung on walls.

In 1992, inspired by a dream of a quilt, I took a mural-making workshop to learn how to make a multi-panel work. Following that, I made more studio and public works in this way. The largest of these is Hopes and Dreams, a mural installed in a subway station at Roosevelt and State. Co-led with artist Juan Chavez, it involved hundreds of volunteer tile-makers.

The main work of my last few years has been the Cairn Project. I conducted more than 50 workshops with diverse populations, many who otherwise would not have had an opportunity to experience the healing benefits of clay. They shaped stoneware rocks to honor feelings of personal pain and loss, and created porcelain tokens to celebrate their inner light. The assembled pieces formed an installation which was exhibited in seven Chicago-area locations, and in Ontario, Canada. See more on www.thecairnproject.com.

It took hundreds of volunteers and assistants and many social service agencies to accomplish the Cairn Project. Murals also require working with consultants, artists, students, volunteers, architects and installers. Larger studio works also require assistance. I’m grateful for the many studio neighbors, volunteers and interns who have helped.

For studio work, I primarily use a sculpture stoneware clay that can weather Midwestern winters. When shaping a piece, I do whatever it takes to achieve what I want—squish, coil, carve, make slabs, add texture. When something cracks or breaks, I often incorporate the change into what the new form presents.

I love completing forms with openings to the interior, where each small addition to close gaps changes the “interior landscape” and invites new variations. I see cracks, fissures, and scars as part of my artistic vocabulary.

The colors I use come primarily from rocks I’ve collected and studied since childhood. Usually I add many layers of color and fill cracks with dark tones for emphasis. I intend for each work to expose the evidence of its own history, much as a person reveals an accumulation of their experiences.

Regardless of what I create, I find the making process a force for developing connections between the past and present, between opposing forces of nature, between the intellect and unconscious and between me and the clay. I hope my work stirs up curiosity, intrigue, a contemplative attitude, and a sense of beauty in brokenness and age.

As an artist, how do you define success and what quality or characteristic do you feel is essential to success as an artist?
It is essential for me to be developing and using my skills to realize my vision. Then it is likely that others will relate actively with the work. The question reminds me of Jeff Oestrich’s advice in a workshop I attended in 1987. Someone asked. “How do you know what the public wants?” and he said, “You make what you love and convince others they want it!” At that moment I decided I could be successful. Through the years, I keep asking myself, “Am I making what I love? Does what I create carry the energy of my vision?”

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
In my studio at Lillstreet Art Center, people can see what is in process and on display. They can also see work on my website, on the Cairn Project website and blog, and occasionally on Facebook or Instagram. When I have exhibits, I alert people on my e-news list. Anyone interested in the Cairn Project can contact me about ways to be involved.

Of course it helps when people purchase my work. Also important are the interactions with others about my and their work. Such conversations energize me, clarify aspects I may be struggling with and inform me about opportunities and new directions.

Contact Info:

• Address: Studio:
  Lillstreet Art Center, 4101 N Ravenswood Ave, Chicago IL 60640
• Website: www.cdpeterson.com
• Phone: 773/742-5037
• Email: corinnedpeterson@earthlink.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corinnedpeterson
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/corinne.d.peterson
• Other: www.thecairnproject.com https://www.instagram.com/cairnproject https://www.facebook.com/cairnproject

Image Credit:
Guy Nichol – first image: Grave

Jyoti Srivastava – Fissure in Lincoln Park Conservatory –

Cindy Trim – Accidental Furnace; Winter’s Tale Women: Advocate (Perdita), True Blue (Hermione), Advocate (Paulina); Place to Rest; Interior Space; and Cairn & Cloud: a collective expression of trauma and hope, installation reception at Citlalin Gallery

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