Carpenter - "Grazers On Yellow" Clay sculpture of a sphere with livestock grazing over a yellow background

Syd Carpenter • American (B: 1953)

Grazers On Yellow C: 1985 • Clay 14 1/2" x 10" x 10"

Something is always happening in Syd Carpenter’s garden. It is the yang to the yin of caring for her brother, quadriplegic due to injury from a Desert Storm accident. In her garden Insects are always locked in mortal combat with the lush foliage tumbling down the cobblestone walk and around the brightly hued ceramic vases. “You think of a garden as a refuge of beauty and order. But, there are real life issues acting out. Rupture. Discord. Violence. All these things you wouldn’t expect to take place in a garden. There’s life.” Syd is taken by those contradictions and the way they play out in her art and life. Inspired by her brother’s battle against paralysis, she developed abstract sculptures capturing the idea of motion.

First as a painter, then as a maker of popular and functional ceramics, finally as a ceramic sculptor, Syd Carpenter always pursues ideas with the vengeance of someone trying to understand themselves. While studying African-American farmers and gardeners for a new series of sculptures, she discovered her grandmother’s fame as a Victory Gardener during World War II. “I learned about it from my aunt who recently came to live with us in Philadelphia. Her Victory Garden fed 7 children and she shared its beauty and bounty with neighbors, making her a local celebrity in Pittsburgh. I didn’t know I had that history.”

(story continues below break)

INTERESTING STORIES FROM OUR SPONSORS

Professor Carpenter has four large touchstones in her life. (1) Her brother. (2) Swarthmore College where she has taught for over two decades. (3) Her studio and (4) her garden district home around the corner. All inspire her constant search for ideas and for herself.

There’s one more place near and dear to Syd Carpenter’s heart and art. 915 Spring Garden was a long-running arts center cooperative founded with her artist-husband. It became the heart of Philadelphia’s arts scene until the building owners thought it should be used for something else. You can take the artists out of the cooperative, but you can’t take the spirit of cooperation out of the artists. She remains a nurturing figure in the Philadelphia arts community.

Sitting in her garden surrounded by beauty, bounty and contradictions, Syd Carpenter is always moving forward, propelled by those who never could or no longer can.

Canton Museum of Art Permanent Collection • Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Dustin C. Lewis, 85.2

4 Ways to Sound Smart When Viewing at The Canton Museum of Art

1.
“Gardening is an important touchstone in her life and art. I guess you could say she has a ceramic thumb. Or not.”

2.
“In 2012 she drove through Georgia and South Carolina, visiting and studying African American farmers and gardeners, bringing together different threads of her life.”

3.
“In 1985 she and her artist husband founded 915 Spring Garden, a 5-story building filled with artists’ studios. It became the heart of the Philadelphia arts community. “

4.
“In Brazil she studied Candombie, a religion that combined Yorba with Catholicism and gave her a heightened sense of her heritage.”

Carpenter Timeline. Scroll over images to see timeline.

1953

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her father was a Pastor in the Church of God. Her mother was artistic, always sewing, gardening and drawing. Both were University of Pittsburgh graduates. Her mother worked in the Salk Institute where the Polio Vaccine was developed. Syd remembers her bringing home bunnies and other animals from the lab.

Mid 1950s

Attended Forbes Elementary School close to downtown Pittsburgh. She remembers it as an excellent school where her inclination toward visual and academic work was nurtured. She remembers creativity and inventiveness being part of her everyday life as she grew up in the open environment of the Church of God community.

1964

Around this time the family moved to Philadelphia area where Syd attended and graduated high school.

1971

By this time the family had been long-time residents of Philadelphia and Syd was invited to pursue pre-med at the University of Pennsylvania. She chose art over medicine and attended Temple University Tyler School of Art. She met her husband in the alphabetical registration line during her first year. She was at the end of the Cs. He was at the front of the Ds.

1976

Received her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Degree from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia.

1980s

She made a living as a potter doing functional pieces sold at craft shows around the mid-Atlantic area. When she started teaching at More College of Art and Community College of Philadelphia she was able to become more exploratory with her art while teaching provided financial security.

1981

Began a long association with the Sande Webster Gallery in downtown Philadelphia, where she is an Affiliated Artist.

1985

Awarded Pennsylvania Council on the Art Visual Arts Fellowship. This award was repeated in 1990. In the same year she and her artist husband founded 915 Spring Garden, an artists cooperative in a 5 story downtown Philadelphia building. They managed it for over 25 years. During that time it became the heart of the Philadelphia arts community.

1986

Her younger brother was injured in a traffic accident while serving in the Middle East during Desert Storm. As a result of the accident he was quadriplegic for the rest of his life. Syd became his caretaker.

1990

Syd was Artist in Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She had similar residencies almost yearly at schools ranging from the Rhode Island of Design to the Haystack School of Crafts on Deer Isle, Maine.

1991

Began a long teaching career at Swarthmore College where she is a Studio Art Professor of Ceramic Art.

1992

Received a Pew Fellowship in the Arts.

2000

Was awarded the Eugene Lang Swarthmore Faculty Fellowship. She also received the Fellowship in 2004, 2008 and 2012.

2012-13

Used a United States Artists Project Grant to study African-American farmers and gardeners throughout the South. She created abstract sculptures of many of the places and people she visited.

2014

A show of her works inspired by African American farmers and gardeners was titled, “A Place of Their Own,” staged at the African American Museum in Philadelphia.