Margaret Couch Cogswell
Margaret Couch Cogswell describes herself as a storyteller at heart. Using cloth, thread, paper, color, and patterns, her work spins whimsical tales that delight viewers of all ages.
Cogswell is a longstanding member of the Asheville artist community where she is closely associated with the wonderful non-profit, Asheville Bookworks. Cogswell’s artist books, crowns, and paper maché sculptures were exhibited in the Gallery Nomads Asheville exhibition at GreenHill in 2016.
Margaret Couch Cogswell, Bird, Cat and Story Ball in Gallery Nomads Asheville
“My conviction that our greatest rewards often come from simple, everyday objects and moments is a recurring theme. Communicating with people through the objects I make continues to be the primary and sustaining focus of my work.”
Margaret Couch Cogswell, Duck and Birdbrain Crown in Gallery Nomads Asheville
Cogswell’s choice of materials and approach: ”using rivets, tabs, wire, and stitching to integrate the disparate components” are a means for sparking creative thought: “For me, materials that are common allow freedom—I don’t like to follow a recipe or to be bound by the limitations of a particular tool.” As in her colorful paper maché Story Ball in which fragments of text fall from openings in the ball when moved, Cogswell’s works offer kernels of larger narratives: “I want my work to be a trigger point for the viewer; to bring an idea, a memory, or a connection to mind, but not to tell the whole story.”
Cogswell has also actively been working on economic strategies for exhibiting as well as creating artworks. She displayed a version of her Tiny Gallery, in Gallery Nomads. The Gallery is a 7.5 x 5.5 foot easily assembled and disassembled structure for exhibiting small works created with Mark Boyd. The Gallery held its debut exhibition on the grounds of Penland School of Craft where Cogswell was a Resident Artist.
Cogswell is currently working from home on a permanent version of the mobile Tiny Gallery:
“I started it a couple weeks into the shutdown and it’s still in progress. My goal is to use only materials I already have. So far I’ve only had to buy some hardware and a few pieces of pressure treated wood for the floor frame. It’s my Covid-19 transformation to self sufficiency- at least that’s the hope. When it’s finished I’ll sell work out of it and maybe host visiting artists shows also. We’ll see."
The Tiny Gallery in progress at Margaret Couch Cogswell’s home in Asheville
Some of Margaret Cogswell’s most popular works are her sculptures of dogs such as those on view in last year’s Winter Show.
Margaret Couch Cogswell, Doug
Dabney Sanders shared her experience with a work in her collection:
What is the name of your sculpture?
I hate to say that I can’t quite remember - I think it is "Stanley don’t wear no pants” - but that might not be quite right.
What attracted you to this work by Margaret Couch Cogswell?
I have admired Margaret's work for years - from her early metal works and books - to these later works. Her dogs are so engaging to me - every time I see one, I just want to bring it home with me. Animals are a big part of my life, and I thought Stanley would be a great addition to our collection.
Tell us about the moment you purchased it.
We had been to the Penland auction in August, and Margaret was the artist who created the centerpieces for the auction that year. I had been wanting to purchase one of Margaret’s dogs for years, and this seemed like a great opportunity - to not only support Margaret and her work - but also support Penland at the same time. I knew they were going to go fast, and I planned to get there right on time when the opportunity presented itself to purchase - but I was delayed and missed out. We were hosting Janet Echelman and her husband and mother at Penland that year. Janet was working on her piece Where We Met for LeBauer Park, and we discovered that her mother had attended Penland as a jewelry artist many years before and had not been back since. It was thrilling to be able to spend the weekend with them - but it did make me miss out on purchasing one of those centerpieces. So in December at GreenHill - I was excited to see that Margaret had a piece in Winter Show and we made the purchase right away.
Some collectors may feel sculpture is not as easy to find a place for as a painting or photograph--How did you decide where to put It?
Walker and I love to move our artwork around, so Stanley has been in a few places. I like grouping pieces together that either have similar themes or create an aesthetic that I like. Stanley is sitting on a table in our living room now, and he shares it with some other animal treasures of ours - a dehydrated squirrel carcass that came out of a chimney in another house we lived in - a work of art in itself and quite a conversation piece - as well as some animal-related things we brought back from a trip to Africa - a giraffe tooth and a piece of lion dung - which is basically a dried out clump of fur. I know it sounds weird - but it works.
What is it like to live with your sculpture “pet”?
He is such a bright spot in the house - puts a smile on our faces when we pass by.
Has this work elicited comments from friends?
Yes - people often ask what the story is behind Stanley, and I like sharing the story of Penland and getting to know Margaret.
How has your collecting been influenced by GreenHill?
GreenHill has been a huge part of our collecting since we moved to Greensboro 20 years ago. GreenHill was one of the first organizations that we got involved with, and it remains one of our favorites. I love telling the story that one year at Collector’s Choice - Walker and I arrived and separated to look at the works on view that year. We came back together and each said that there was one piece we were interested in purchasing. And amazingly out of the hundreds of pieces in the show - when I showed Walker which one I wanted - it was the one that he had selected too. As we looked closer at the piece and the artist - we realized that it was a piece by Sarah Powers who lives in Raleigh now, but was from Rhode Island where I grew up and she was a very close friend of my younger brother. And that made the piece even more special for us.
Meet Stanley in the Sanders' home below:
Cogswell's Book, Creative Adventures in Handmade Books, offers guides to several of the artist's projects in paper maché and is introduced in the following video:
Margaret Couch Cogswell received her BA from Rhodes College. She continued her education at Rhode Island School of Design, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and Penland School of Crafts where she was a Resident Artist 2008-2011 |