Hilary Pfeifer
Multi-disciplinary artist Hilary Pfeifer has been a self-employed artist for over 25 years and has her own related business, Bunny with a Tool Belt. She creates permanent artwork for clients such as TriMet, the Randall Children’s Hospital, Oregon State University, and Home Forward. She was featured in an article in American Craft Magazine in 2014, and her work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Craft, The White House, Oregon Health Sciences University, and the Center for Art in Wood. Pfeifer received a BFA in woodworking and metalsmithing at Oregon College of Art and Craft and studied ceramics at the University of Oregon.
Statement
I am interested in the ways that humans attempt to control nature, and, in turn, how nature finds a way to adapt or reassert itself. My work often tells these stories with icons such as: a walking stick for insulated city folk, a bug that instinctually gravitates towards automobile exhaust fumes, or a floral couch that has a life of its own. This imagery expresses my feelings about environmental preservation and human intimacy using an aesthetic language of humor, play, and curiosity. Years of working with many other craft and fine art disciplines have been indispensable in my ability to work with found materials.
I have used discarded wood as a major component in my art since 1998. Moving easily between figurative and abstract representations of nature, I often combine forms that I have completely shaped with altered found objects, such as a cooking utensil, furniture spindle, toy part or tool handle, to create a single piece. I believe that altering found objects in a way that is vaguely recognizable to the viewer enhances their sensory experience.
