We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ingrid Butterer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ingrid, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
The most meaningful project I have ever worked on is my ongoing EVERYDAY IS MOTHERS DAY PROJECT (ingridbutterer.com) started in 2019. This multi-disciplinary project represents the domestic violence I experienced while parenting two young children. Previous to Everyday is Mothers Day Project, I had no interest in making directly political or specifically feminist art work. However, my experience was such that it became absolutely necessary to address in order to move on. Now, four years into the project, I am gratified by the response to the work. Particularly, the well received film work. I have learned a good deal about the varied responses people have to victims and survivors of domestic violence. Especially those who speak frankly and openly. Moreover, the profound prevalence of domestic violence/abuse and its wide reach regardless of education, income, race or origin.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am an artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. My practice is focused on motherhood and domestic violence represented through clay, fiber sculpture, earth art and photo/video/performance. I earned a BFA from the University of Michigan and ED.M from Columbia University, Teachers College where I am a frequent lecturer. My work has been published in Orenda Arts Journal, Quarantine Magazine and Womxn Artist Project. My work has shown at Atlantic Gallery, Westbeth Gallery, Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, A.I.R. Gallery, Chuck Levitan Gallery and Yamashita Gallery. I have been a featured speaker at The Women of Kansai Association (Japan), SLA Gallery, Gallery at St. Francis College, Brooklyn College and Yardmeter Editions in New York City. My work can be found in private collections throughout the U.S. and Japan. You can find out more about my work, where I am showing, works for sale and sign up for a quarterly newsletter on my website ingridbutterer.com. Interested parties can also follow me on instagram at ingridbutterer.art.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
What all creatives need is encouragement. The public can provide encouragement by participating in ways that feel good and are mutually beneficial. For example, many artists support themselves as educators. If you enjoy learning new things, take classes and expand your knowledge of the artistic process. If you enjoy collecting, continue to beautify your world through buying and collecting art and craft. If you enjoy a lively social scene, attend openings, plays, music venues and get to know artists and the arts community. Whatever your personal interests might be, there’s an arts connection to match it. Yes, encouragement is key to artistic growth.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I am a multidisciplinary artist. The artistic reward for me is in the pleasure of working with vastly different materials and completely different processes embedded within one concept. For example, the work I mentioned earlier; Everyday is Mothers Day Project includes a photo/video docuseries, performance and sculpture. In the photo/video docuseries you will find me pouring gallons of milk into holes and waterways. As I work alone, the process requires not only a keen eye but a steady hand to manage unpredictable natural environments, light and digital equipment. This is followed by hours of editing on the computer to dissect the best shots and angles for meaning. In my sculptural work from the same series; I am stringing up pounds of clay on metal thread and contending with the physicality of earth. To complete the sculpture I use a pit fire process, directly managing smoke and flame. Turning over an idea through the use of different materials is much like turning over a gem and gazing at it through all it’s different facets. For me, this way of working produces particularly gratifying insights into the meaning of the subject at hand.
Contact Info:
- Website: ingridbutterer.com
- Instagram: ingridbutterer.art
- Facebook: Ingrid Butterer
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/98N9-H9A8q0
Image Credits
all images are credited to the artist