Pencil Artist of the Week: Harriete Estel Berman

Pencil Artist Harriete Estel Berman

This week’s featured pencil artist is Harriete Estel Berman, a sculptor and jewelry maker who creates her pieces out of post consumer, recycled materials. She created her latest sculpture, titled “Pick UP Your Pencils, Begin,” out of pencils sent to her from people all over the world. Pencils from Belgium and England, to the United States and Japan found their way into her sculpture, and the result is a work of art that has as much to say socially as it does creatively.

“Pick UP Your Pencils, Begin” is Berman’s first foray into the world of pencil art but, like all of Berman’s work, it is as much a piece of art as it is a piece of social commentary. In this case, Berman is making a commentary on the current state of our K-12 school system. In our brief interview, Harriete described her dissatisfaction with the current K-12 system and the inspiration behind her latest piece:

“This sculpture and another previous artwork about education titled “Measuring Compliance” were both inspired by my experiences as a parent with the current K-12 educational system designed primarily for the success of the conforming student.

Despite the stated goals of education to teach problem solving, most teachers apply one teaching methodology to all students. We know that people learn in different ways, and that there are multiple levels of intelligence, yet the current academic focus is for everyone to do the same assignment the same way.

We measure student performance, teacher performance and school performance with standardized tests that only measure a few levels of performance (including how well people take tests.)”

The sculpture itself is a bell curve composed of wood-cased pencils woven together in a sort of tapestry. While describing her creative process, Harriete described the process she used while creating the bell curve as “a lot like weaving with pencils,” and the result has a very similar visual effect.

The pencil has obvious connections to our K-12 school system and standardized testing, but Harriete also recognized its status as a metaphor for the creative process. “[P]encils are a very powerful metaphor. Pencils are a very creative medium. It naturally allows for problem solving, creativity, the freedom to make mistakes, erase, and try again.”

“Pick UP Your Pencils, Begin” will have its first public exhibition at the Anita Seipp Gallery at the Castilleja School in Palo Alto, CA. The sculpture was photographed in the same location for an article in American Craft magazine, which can be read here. The full details for the event are as follows:

EXHIBITION DATES: March 5, 2012 till March 30, 2012

LOCATION: Anita Seipp Gallery
Castilleja School
1310 Bryant Street
Palo Alto, CA 94301

Gallery Hours:  10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Monday through Friday and by appointment

Public Reception: Thursday, March 22, 2012 6-8 p.m. 

If you want to see more of Harriete’s work, you can check out her website here. She is currently working on a video about “Pick UP Your Pencils, Begin” and the commentary behind the piece. For more information about the video, check out her website’s “Pencil Page” here.

What do you think pencileers? Can you spot any of your favorite pencils in the curve? Let us know what you think in the comments section!