Addie Langford @ Essay’d
Four years into an architectural program at RISD, Addie Langford found herself confronting a hard truth: she missed making things. All the theoretical design emphasis in her formal studies could not replace the importance of the hands-on process of creation that had always been a fundamental part of her practice.
Retreating from architecture into an all-encompassing two-year stint of architectural tile-making, under the tutelage of well-known Russian ceramics artist Sergei Isupov and his then-wife, Dana Major, Langford used that time in her native Kentucky to recalibrate. Her next move was a Masters study of ceramics, which included fiber and a Fulbright Fellowship that took her to Madrid to research “Renaissance Tapestry as a Harbinger of Contemporary Collage.” However, Langford has not truly abandoned architecture, and her subsequent explorations in ceramics, painting, and textiles all pay deep attention to the indispensible architectural factor of structure.