Today we’d like to introduce you to Tracie Griffith Tso.
Hi Tracie, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Griffith Tso painted her first brushstrokes as a child in California. She specializes spontaneous
flower-bird painting, taught by a teacher schooled by a Hong Kong master. At 12, she learned to throw
pots. After 10+ years as a journalist/infographics news artist, she turned to fine art when, necessitated by becoming an Army wife, she took her skills on the road. She began telling her story as her husband moved through endless cities for training. Reaching a new city, she would ferret out the arts
community, offering a workshop, demonstration or lecture. Artists embraced her, wanting to dabble in
Eastern techniques, materials, philosophy. In 2005, a Kentucky potter swapped horse-painting lessons for use of her pottery studio, which revived Griffith Tso’s clay art instincts, developing a body of work
during her husband’s year-long combat deployment. When Griffith Tso arrived in Washington D.C.,
she beelined for the Torpedo Factory Art Center, recalling being mesmerized on an 8th grade visit. She quickly juried into the pottery co-op gallery, then the Factory, and enjoys visiting with patrons in her first floor working studio/gallery at an historic facility that sees 50,000 annual visitors. Classical brushpainting skills are increasingly rare. Studying art in the Far East is as common as to
going to a piano teacher in this country. It is an everyday occurrence, routine. The story changes as we move to present day in the United States, as a generation of skilled immigrant artists are aging out.
Developing instincts, understanding and passing on techniques from the Far East is essential. Griffith
Tso looks to do her part as teaching and projecting an Eastern voice is vital to the heritage of Asian Art
in this country.
She resides in Reston, Va. and sppends deeply satisfying days in her studio with her muse and
workshop rabbit, Willow.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Pottery is a challenging meduim as it is multi-stage with firings being a factor. It is a kind of experiment every time. Consistency is key and abnormalities and ‘happy surprises’ can appear at any stage during the process. With painting on rice paper and silk, work is under an artist’s control to a greater extent, seeing and addressing challenges instantly, rather in a last glaze firing. Drying and firing times make pottery a longer, more laborious journey.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Griffith Tso specializes in spontaneous flower-bird Chinese brushpainting. It’s origins emphazize black ink and images are created from a series of disciplined strokes with bamboo-handled, wolf-hair brushes. Griffith Tso has transferred this style of painting to functional stoneware pottery. Griffith Tso trades her ink and water for underglazes, pigments that are brushed on before adding a glossy coat of glaze. She creates each piece on a pottery wheel or with handbuilt techniques and, when finished with freestyle handpainting, it becomes a three dimensional original. In a world peppered with reproduced, repetitive imagery and decoration, Griffith Tso provides a narrative of gestural compositions: the story of a stallion, the courtship of swallows, the tale of a tiger, a treetop conversation of squirrels or cardinals and seasonal scenes showcasing the placidity of the natural world with rabbits or sealife. It is rewarding to keep this 6.000-year-old classical artform alive and vital, advancing it from old-school assembly-line manufacturing where specialized skilled workers contribute to the creation of one piece, to work with an artist’s independent vision wholly conceived and executed from an individual.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Griffith Tso is an educator of classical Chinese Brushpainting that enjoys educating and interacting with patrons to expand their understanding of Eastern Art. She teaches, demos and lectures nationwide. Artwork echoes themes of love and hunger, which viewers can relate to and makes them smile. Griffith Tso passes on her enjoyment of creation to her patrons with compositions that make the heart soar.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.inksart.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/traciegriffithtso/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/traciegriffithtso
- Other: https://canvas.baltimoreclayworks.org/shop?_gl=1*1bbg0cz*_ga*MTM5Mzk0NTc5LjE3ODU0Njg2MzE
