{"id":29201,"date":"2015-07-09T16:43:39","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T22:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=29201"},"modified":"2020-03-15T11:07:20","modified_gmt":"2020-03-15T17:07:20","slug":"russell-wrankle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/russell-wrankle\/","title":{"rendered":"Unapologetic: The bold, captivating ceramic art of Russell Wrankle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"russell_wrankle\"<\/a>
\nGrowing up in a blue-collar family on the rural outskirts of Palm Springs, Calif., Russell Wrankle never imagined that one day his life would revolve around the arts. That all changed in college, when he took a ceramics class and was instantly hooked. \u201cI guess it was something that I always had but never explored,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

A BFA and MFA in ceramics and hundreds of awards, solo exhibitions, residencies, lectures, invitationals, and juried shows later, Wrankle has built a considerable reputation for himself as an artist and art educator.<\/p>\n

His studio is a restored barn in Toquerville, where he\u2019s lived with his wife, an elementary-school art teacher, and their three kids since 2001. His first selling works were pottery, which brought in business but didn\u2019t fulfill him creatively the way sculpture could. He eventually made the choice to devote his time and energy to the latter.<\/p>\n

Wrankle focuses largely on animal imagery, a connection that traces back to a pre-Columbian art history class he took in grad school, where he discovered the Colima dogs of Mexico. He then began studying animal-centric works from around the world.\u00a0 \u201cI like to use animals to make a visual narrative of the human condition\u2014the way that Aesop\u2019s Fables did, to explore human personalities and types,\u201d he says. \u201cSo all my work is about the human condition, primarily using the animal as a starting point in that conversation. They have a lot to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wrankle says he\u2019s fascinated by exploration of the external and internal structure of the animal form, and their fleshiness. He pays close attention to how the skin might hang over bone and muscle.<\/p>\n

He will incorporate mixed media if an idea calls for it, but remains faithful to his first love, ceramics. \u201cI like the fluidity of it during the workable phase,\u201d he says. \u201cI like how it can be fired and become solid, and how it can mimic other materials. I enjoy the process that\u2019s involved: I start with solid clay on an armature, rough out the form until I find it, hollow it out, and put in the details.\u201d<\/p>\n