Gathie Falk

"I had noticed a pyramid of apples at a corner grocer's and knew immediately that I could make something very special out of that everyday arrangement - sculpture that was part organic form, part organic structure. Apples became my new joy: throwing them on the wheel and then shaping them and piling them in pyramids - some of the pyramids with square bases and others rectangular - glazing them and then firing them so that the glaze fused the apples together".

Born in 1928 Canadian artist, Gathie Falk is best known for her ceramic works which provide artful commentary on the everyday. Falk worked for years in a factory before becoming an elementary school teacher. During her spare time in the summer, she would focus on her art studies and in 1965, after a decade of her teaching, decided to devote her career to art. The same year Falk had her first solo exhibition and went to Europe for the first time. Later, Falk was introduced to performance art through a workshop given in Vancouver by New York artiest Deborah Hay. Falk felt performance art suited her sensibilities, she then developed her own unique performance style. During the early seventies Falk went back to sculpting and painting, where she started creating stacked apple.

Falk's works reflects the whimsical spirit of her everyday life. Her works are created from the essence of discovery of the mundane, luminescent and lively, embodying the notion of reality. Falk is quoted as stating, “I feel that unless you know your own sidewalk intimately, you’re never going to be able to look at the pyramids and find out what they’re about. You’re never going to be able to see things in detail unless you can look at your kitchen table, see it and find significance in it—or the shadow that is cast by a cup, or your toothbrush. Seeing the details around you makes you able to see large things better", owing to her continued exploration of "the normal". Falk continues to exhibit and produce new works from her studio in Vancouver, B.C.