Animals are a source of sustenance and awe. They are domesticated and feared, symbolic and totemic. For leatherworker Casey Gunschel, animals are her medium and often her muse. For potter Ann Schunior, they are a connection to indigenous cultures around the world. Using traditional techniques unique to each medium, both artists carve richly decorative surfaces that reflect a shared reverence for the animals.
Casey Gunschel is a Massachusetts based artist. Her tooled leatherwork is a culmination of years spent as painter, wallpaper designer and theater prop maker, merging both illustrative and sculptural skills to create works of leather art. Straddling the boundary between fine and functional, Casey creates commissioned furniture and wall installations for her architectural clients as well as large, illustrative tapestries for the fine art world. Her work has been featured in many design publications to include Elle Décor, the New York Times and Luxe Interiors, and has been represented in both solo and group showings in New York, Chicago, LA and Paris.
Ann Schunior’s work is inspired by traditional crafts around the world. Her pottery forms come from the unfailing shapes of simple functional ware, but their surface designs come from animal imagery on petroglyphs, wood carvings and fabric paintings of traditional cultures. Ann has traveled widely, primarily in West Africa, to meet craftspeople that still work in the old ways. She’s as excited by indigenous architecture, weaving and fabric dyeing as by traditional pottery. She aims to incorporate the imagery from traditional media onto clay without losing their original vitality.
(Click on Images to Expand) Top Images left to right:
Saggar vessel with mountain goats
7.5” hi x 8×8
Ann Schunior
“Salad Days, When We Were Green in Judgement, Cold in Blood”
2012 Cow hide and beeswax 5’ x 7’
Casey Gunschel
Bottom images left to right:
Wading bird platter
14” diameter x 2”
Ann Schunior
“EDO”
2013 Cow hide, beeswax, 100% felted wool backing 5’ x 7”
Casey Gunschel
Artists’ reception will take place on Saturday, May 6th from 1:00 – 4:00. Admission is free. The public is cordially invited.
