Carla Rippey

Carla Rippey
“I’m surrounded by young people, in fact I hope to reflect in my way of approaching life and art.” – Carla Rippey[1]
Born	(1950-05-21)May 21, 1950
Fields	Art Feminist, Visual Artist, School Director

Carla Rippey is a visual artist and the director of The National School of Painting, Sculpture and Engraving “La Esmeralda.” Rippey is a considered to be a self-conscious feminist artist of Mexico.^[2] Rippey states, “My mother was very literary and my father was a journalist and photographer, so the connection with words and photography (on which most of my work is based) was always there. It wasn't until I went to live in Latin America at the age of 22 that I switched to printmaking (and later, drawing), as writing in English wasn't something I could share with people, living in a Spanish -speaking culture. Titles and metaphoric images have always been important in my work, though. I wrote my undergraduate thesis on the intersection of art and politics, so I knew I wanted to do something connected with both. Running an art school is a way to put progressive policies in action in this sense.”^[1]

Early life

Carla Rippey was born on May 21, 1950 in Kansas City, Kansas. She is the daughter of James Rippey and Barbara Wright. Her father worked as a newspaperman and photojournalist, and her mother was a scholar on Great Plains Literature and went on to receive a Ph.D. in English Literature. Rippey shared memories of her mother teaching her how to make potato-print Christmas paper, which was one of her first introductions to printmaking. Rippey also stated, “I remember a moment when I was about 10 or 11 when I took a milkweed flower, dipped it in ink and started printing on paper with it. And I thought, “This is it, I want to do this, whatever it is.”^[1]

Education

As a teenager, she wrote poetry as her way of creative expression. During high school, she visited the Joslyn Art Museum which was located next to her school. This is where she first saw prints and she was interested and impressed by the precision.^[1] While in high school Rippey worked as a telephone operator and saved her earnings which allowed her to travel to Paris when she turned 18. She was in Paris for 5 months studying at Sorbonne. From 1969-1972, Rippey attended college at the State University of New York at Old Westbury. The university had an experimental program that gave her the ability to create a graduation plan that fit her needs, which allowed her to graduate in 2-and-a-half years majoring in Humanities.^[3]

After graduating, Rippey moved to Boston, where she lived in a women’s commune. She worked as a graphic designer making posters for feminist organizations. She also worked in an alternative publishing house “The New England Free Press.” Rippey attempted to make a living as a professional offset printer but was unsuccessful partially due to health reasons. After returning home to Nebraska to recuperate, Rippey embarked on a journey to Chile. Rippey thought of herself as a poet, but to live where few speak the language in which she wrote. She decided to return to one of her childhood passions of expression: drawing and its variations.^[3] While in Chile, Rippey attended workshops at the University of Chile and the Catholic University of Chile where she learned about metal engraving.  Also while she was in Chile she connected with a former colleague Ricardo Pascoe. They were married not long after. Ricardo was an ambassador to Cuba during the Vicente Fox Mexican presidential administration and later became a prominent leftist politician in Mexico. They became militant in Chilean leftist politics and worked together for the “Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria” or MIR (which is a leftist party) in Chile where Rippey was designing posters for the cause. When Allende fell, they moved to Mexico. Rippey started making silkscreen posters in Chile for the leftist movement, but when she got pregnant, she switched from screen printing to engraving, which involved fewer fumes.^[3] Within three years of returning to Mexico, Rippey and Pascoe had two children, Luciano and Andrés.^[1] Rippey and Pascoe separated in 1978. Starting her new role as a single mother, Rippey struggled financially when there was economic unsteadiness in Mexico City. She left for Jalapa, Veracruz to work as a printmaking teacher at the Veracruz State University. On the occasion that Rippey had any free time, she began working in a collective printmaking studio and collaborated with the experimental art group “Peyote and the Company,” which was part of the experimental Los Grupos movement in Mexico. Following her separation from Pascoe and leaving Mexico City, Rippey entered into a long term relationship with a Mexican artist, Adolfo Patiño. Together they worked in the artists' collective “Peyote.” This is where Rippey began her work with drawings and photographic collages. She then began to put her works of art in to exhibitions in Mexico City. Currently her children Luciano and Andrés have families of their own; Luciano lives and works in Mexico in politics and communications and has 4 kids, and Andrés lives and works in Chile with the Unesco and is a writer and has 2 kids.^[3] 

Career

In 1985, Rippey's first exhibition was displayed at the Carrillo Gil Museum in Mexico City. During the 1990s, Rippey’s work was exhibited many times. Her work was primarily shown in exhibitions around Mexico and the U.S. Most of her exhibitions consisted of prints and drawings, including one-person shows in the National Printing Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City, and the Museum of Monterrey.^[3]

In 2001, Rippey began in a relationship with Ramon Sanchezura “Mongo,” who was a former member of the “Peyote” group and the editor of the “La regla rota,” and a sculptor. “La regla rota” was a magazine that was said to represent the spirit of a generation in the late 60s and throughout the 70s.^[4]  While with Mongo, Rippey began to think about some of the aspects of her work, and decided to begin producing ceramics, alternative graphics, and some installations. Rippey also began teaching a class at The National School of Painting, Sculpture and Engraving, La Esmeralda in alternative graphics.^[3]

In 2013, Rippey was appointed as the first female director of the historic National School of Painting, Sculpture and Printmaking, La Esmerelda, a free government university-level art school in Mexico City. She has been working with the school to help encourage and promote a collaborative model of education that focuses not only on educating the students to be successful artists but also and according to Rippey more importantly, they educate them to be creative members of society.^[1] Rippey feels proud of what she has accomplished and what she is still working to accomplish today. Rippey said that one of the key factors to her success and recognition as an artist was that she was a survivor. She was a single mother to two children, she felt that “marriage was the victim of little stamina of its members.” She kept moving forward despite a time in her life where she was struggling to fight depression and a disease. Rippey stated, “I think the work that I produced resonated, perhaps being a voice. Women expressing certain matters with a sharpness that is not found elsewhere.” She feels that she has accomplished “solid things” like good relations with people who are important to her: her children, her family, her students and her partner. She is also proud of the works she has created and said, “If I had to do it all again, I would do it the same. I feel I have made many mistakes that have made my life too rough and sometimes a kind of disaster, and I’ve hurt people who would not have hurt. Also, if you were to do them again, do them in a way so that I do not get bored.”^[3]

Exhibitions and Shows

• Museum of Modern Art, Mexico, DF
• Museum of Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico
• Toledo Art Museum, (Collection of illustrated books) Toledo, Ohio, USA
• Alvar and Carmen G Carrillo Gil Museum, Mexico City
• Museo de la Estampa, Mexico, DF
• Graphic Arts Institute of Oxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico
• The Irish Museum, Dublin, Ireland

Random Facts and Personal Interview

Rippey and Pascoe are friends with famed author Roberto Bolaño. She was involved in the early stages of the Infrarrealist poets’ group which lead to Bolaño’s book, The Savage Detectives.^[3] Rippey had a short appearance in the book as the artist Catalina O’Hara.^[1]

- I asked Rippey, “Do you have an artist that you feel has been an influence on the type of art work that you create?”

-She said, “When I was young I identified with Mary Cassatt and Käthe Kollwitz. I have always been impressed by Degas. I really identify with the work of the Latvian-born artist Vija Celmins, we share similar themes and ways of working. I would say the artist I find most interesting today is the South African William Kentridge, for the scope of his work, using so many different disciplines, and the way his work connects to social concerns, as well as its quality and innovative nature.”^[1]

References

External links

• Blog
  • http://carla-rippey.blogspot.com/