Bio
Sylvie Rosenthal started building at age six at an experimental design museum where she made circuses, catapults, rockets, and robots. She received a BFA from RIT’s School for American Crafts in Woodworking, built two houses from the ground up with her mentor, Doug Sigler, in western North Carolina, and received a MFA in sculpture from the UW-Madison. She owns and operates Lower Astronomy Studios, a design, sculpture, and woodworking studio in Madison. Sylvie teaches woodworking and design thinking in many settings, such as university and college programs, craft school workshops, and to children in the studio and virtually. She recently finished her service on the board of trustees of CERF+, the Artists’ Safety Net which helps artists build strong and resilient careers, of which she is still an active supporter.
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Artist Statement
Out to See and Journey to an Empty City are part of a body of work that combines animal forms and vernacular architecture. In process, they reconfigure ways of making and deconstruct ‘traditional’ European woodworking techniques into more experimental methodologies. Conceptually, assembled and carved works are propositional hybrids that refuse Linnaean taxonomy and live at the edge of the believable. This refusal allows for otherness to become materially visible and seen through a lens of wonder.