Nothing is impossible in Trudy Golley’s world — as long as you are passionate and want it badly enough.
The innovative Red Deer ceramicist was so determined to make her artistic career fly that she earned more selling her clay creations out of her parents’ basement than many of her friends made at so-called “real” jobs. Years later, Golley applied to get her master’s degree at the University of Tasmania even though she had just $39 in her bank account at the time.
Unperturbed by the cash-flow problem, she proceeded to sell original sculptures like crazy to accumulate the $4,750 needed for one term at the school within the six-week deadline. A few loyal, long-term clients even gave Golley hundreds of dollars up front, on the promise that she would create new artworks for them once she got her degree — which she did.
“I’ve always had more guts than brains,” said the Red Deer College visual arts instructor, with a lively laugh.
Golley — who’s created art in Denmark, Australia, Malta and China, where she was commissioned in 2005 to build a two-metre-tall figure for a sculpture park — was stumped when asked by a student whether she ever worried, as she was setting up a studio or gallery, that things wouldn’t work out?
“I was stunned — my husband later told me the look on my face was priceless,” recalled Golley, who didn’t know how to respond to that question.
Once she collected her thoughts, Golley replied, “You know, it never occurred to me until you asked me that. I always figured that I wanted it so bad, I would find any way to make it work.”
Of course, things didn’t always pan out exactly as Golley planned. She once opened an art gallery and then closed it, $10,000 in debt. But Golley said she never considered this a failed venture.
“I didn’t see things as a success or failure. I’d try something, and if I didn’t get to where I wanted, I’d back out of that and do something else.”
The 54-year-old was raised in Revelstoke, B.C., by “incredibly supportive” parents who encouraged her single-minded artistic interest. “They even told my guidance counsellors, ‘Our daughter wants to follow a career in art. Don’t tell her it isn’t important’ — which was quite a unique achievement in that era.”
Golley credits her seamstress mother — a German immigrant with a perfectionist work ethic — for instilling the idea that everything worth doing is worth doing right.
Golley loved the “magical” idea of turning a flat piece of fabric into a three-dimensional object through the use of darts and gussets. She soon realized she preferred the “transformational” quality of sculptural ceramics to drawing or painting.
So many things can go wrong in the ceramic process — from glazes that inexplicably run or blister to shrinkage cracks from kiln firing — that it’s exhilarating when everything goes right, said Golley.
She quoted the noted woodworker David Pye, who once said “the delivery of beauty in the teeth of risk” is what he finds so satisfying about his craft, in which the slip of a carving tool can make all the difference.
Similarly, “anytime you take a piece (of clay) and submit it to the fire, anything can happen,” said Golley. “It can become a fabulous success or a heartbreaking failure.”
The artist enjoyed creating her own projects so much that it took her 16 years to earn her bachelor of fine arts, first at the Kootenay School of the Arts in Nelson, B.C., then from the Alberta College of Art and Design and University of Calgary, where she finally obtained the degree.
“I would do one year at school, then four years in my studio,” she recalled with a laugh.
While she was completing her master’s degree at the University of Tasmania in 1991, Golley had the opportunity to teach some classes there. She soon realized how much she enjoyed passing her skills on to students.
Once back in Canada, Golley got teaching jobs at the Alberta College of Art, Kootenay School of the Arts and University of Manitoba, where she met her husband, jewelry artist Paul Leathers — before landing her position at Red Deer College in 2000.
Golley admitted that Red Deer held appeal because she had long been intrigued by how advanced RDC ceramics students were, and how much learning was packed into their two years at the college before the students transferred to universities to complete their degrees. “I always thought there’s something special here.”
While she had done some overseas residencies before moving to Red Deer, Golley began making regular summertime excursions to China over the last five years, learning new methods that she’s brought back to share with her students.
One of the new techniques earned Golley her second RDC faculty award. She is among the first ceramics artists in Canada to gain proficiency in using chromium or titanium metals to create gold and silver surfaces on ceramics. The physical vapour deposition (PVD) method is an industrial process that involves vaporizing metal in a vacuum chamber using high voltage plasma energy, which deposits metal coatings onto the ceramic objects within.
Golley said the gold and silver surfaces are shiny on glazed areas and matt on unglazed ceramics. The only problem in using this method in Canada is that vapor chambers are only available at commercial or industrial manufacturers. But Golley is looking to use some for the creation of art.
The instructor, who credits supportive college administration for allowing some of her international learning opportunities, creates meticulous sculptural, vessel-based works that sell for $200 to $4,000 at the David Kaye Gallery in Toronto.
A range of her artworks can be seen locally when they are exhibited by the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery in the fall of 2013.
Some of Golley’s ceramic pieces are done in collaboration with her husband. Leathers creates wearable art, in the form of a broach or necklace, and Golley builds an aesthetically appealing display home for it, in the shape of a ceramic wall plaque that contains a compartment for the jewelry to rest when it isn’t being worn.
No art should end up in a drawer, said Golley — it deserves to be seen.
Golley is leading a three-week Purposeful Travel Tour to China in May 2013. Participants will be sightseeing, visiting various museums and ceramics operations, and participating in workshops and seminars. For more information, go to alluviumtelusplanet.net.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com