Statement / Bio

I’m a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Philadelphia. After earning my B.A. from Vassar in Asian Studies, I studied painting and sculpture at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and ceramic sculpture in the MFA program at the University of Arizona. I went on to pursue creative careers including a ten-year stint as an entrepreneur and a nationally recognized cake designer. In 2020, I kick-started my reemergence as a professional artist.  

My practice is experimental and process driven. I build, deconstruct, and mend together – striving to create work that is at once ethereal and visceral. Impermanence is an important concept for me and something which plays a role in material choices. Fabric, clay, and wax will lose shape and disintegrate over time, becoming something else entirely. But in the present, we can endlessly manipulate them.

My current work focuses on the exploration of metamorphosis. I use imagery that suggests elements of the human form including hair, skin, and bones – or that which can be lost, sloughed off, become broken, and then regenerate over time. The fundamental shape of an egg or pod serves as the starting structure in many of my works. At the beginning of the cycle the pod is full and fertile. After transformation, it’s empty but open – only a shell, husk, or cocoon remains.  

www.allisonhudson.com