Spotlight On: Christine Crimmins, sculptor, TBSSS alumni & teacher
Christine working in the Studio.
Name: Christine Crimmins
What years did you attend classes at TBSSS?
I was a student from 1985 and started teaching 2012 onwards.
What was unique about your TBSSS experience?
The close one on one teaching relationship.
What was your first impression walking in to TBSSS?
I remember arriving at Broadway, Tom welcomed me personally and he introduced me immediately to the sculpture library.
What was your first impression of Tom?
He was very intense generally. He had an intense interest in the students and how they were developing.
What is your fondest memory of Tom and the Studio?
Tom wearing his ceremonial robes all day and into the evening at dinner when he received his honary doctorate from Sydney University.
How have your studies at the TBSSS prepared you for your practice?
I have gained an understanding of technical processes as well as the means of giving expression to my creativity.
What was your favourite medium to work in?
Plaster.
What lessons / skills / concepts have stayed with you from your time at TBSSS?
To value the learning process as well as the outcome.
What inspires your practice today?
Tell us about the works you are exhibiting as part of the 50th exhibition:
I have long been drawn to the Sydney Opera House and Jorn Utzon’s design concept and to the construction methods settled upon by the architectural team – whereby reportedly the sails were visualized as sections of a whole sphere, likened to segments of an orange. The overall effect was to give the ‘sails’ a relationship and an integrity inherent in their having originated from the same overall shape. My shapes are hopefully following a similar principle whereby sections of a whole are reassembled in a different configuration, while maintaining an integrity harking back to the original shape.
Thank you Christine!
