Biography

Halton grew up in a family of artists, including her maternal grandparents and mother. She remembers her early art-making as both a refuge and a way to make sense of the emotional vagaries of family life. During Halton’s years as an undergraduate she encountered the work of Jean Dubuffet. He was a seminal discovery for her, for his ability not only to access the dark side of inner life but also show us the humor in it.  

From the beginning the role of figures was central, ranging from cartoon-­‐like, graphic images to more gestural forms. It is the pictorial space between the figures and forms that has continually evolved in Halton’s prints, drawings, and paintings.

Her recent body of work displays a growing vocabulary of mark-­‐making, a refinement of technique and a deepening psychological engagement. In 2013 a family tragedy precipitated her beginning to use clay. The physicality of the material allowed Halton to explore her emotions while also opening up to new ways of looking at the larger social issues brought up by the tragic event.

She has shown extensively throughout the U.S. Venues include the Orange County Museum of Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore Clayworks, OK Harris in New York, Gallery K in Washington D.C., Malton Gallery in Cleveland, and the Creative Alliance in Baltimore, and the McLean Project for the Arts in Virginia. Her work has been included in numerous private and public collections.

She was recently awarded the A.I.R. Vallauris in France, and a solo exhibition at Stevenson University.

Artist Statement

I’m driven to make sense of the vagaries and challenges of being human. I see the world through a psychology lens. Using humor and metaphor I visually describe large social and behavioral issues that resonate for me on a personal level.

Figures have always served as my visual vehicles. They symbolize anyone anywhere, and appear outside of specific times and places. They could be players in Morality Tales, existing in their own worlds while at the same time embodying human virtues and vices. It’s the questions that are suggested by their encounters that intrigue me. Who am I? Why do we do what we do to each other?

There’s an urgency to these questions. I think about them, develop my concept, then I work the materials quickly and deliberately. I include enough information to identify a figure’s gender and whether they’re naked or clothed. The ceramic sculptures are highly textured. Nooks and crannies in the clay’s surface invite the viewer to consider what’s underneath.

By asking questions we’re looking beyond the surface and into the meaning of an event or encounter. There are no answers, only different ways of looking at a common problem. I often repeat my images to make a point. None of the information I present is new, but seeing it repeated, and altered slightly from one to the other, can perhaps begin to create a change.