Clay
2014
Meadville, PA

Lungs, Heart, & Stomach Family of Forms: Autonomic Appreciation

The external stimuli of our environment seem to consume much of our attention. So consumed with our surroundings, we often forget to look within and to make time for introspection. To fully understand our surrounding environment though, we must look within, for each of us as individuals help to make up the surrounding environment. We are as much a part of it as we are a part of ourselves. I wanted to provide the opportunity for us to take a moment to consider our our internal structures. Pondering our concrete internal structures can be used as an avenue for more abstract introspection.

I created three organs that help to make up our autonomic nervous system. Our autonomic nervous system is responsible for the control of bodily functions that are not consciously directed, such as breathing (lungs), the heartbeat (heart), and digestive processes (stomach). This incredible system works without our conscious thought, but there is much to be gained by having a greater consciousness and awareness of it. Through growing more aware of our autonomic nervous system, we might further grow to appreciate it.

Nesting Bowls: Life Blossom

This body of work explores the beautiful and unlikely moment in history when we went from tiny bags of chemicals to the menagerie of living things all around us. Directly inspired by a podcast from Radiolab called Cellmates that explores the moment when two cells managed to merge and spur a grand step in evolution. This is a single evolutionary theory, however the unlikeliness of this possibility gave me pause and appreciation for whatever may have transgressed in one moment millions of years ago. 

The nesting nature of the pieces simply represents cells within cells and the natural depictions on each of the pieces illustrates different flora and fauna that have emerged because of this unlikely blossoming of life.

Large Historical Contemporary Vessel: Celebration of Interconnectedness 

This vessel was inspired by the Blue Pottery of Jaipur that was often decorated with animals, birds, and flowers. Blue Pottery of Jaipur pieces are too fragile to be used as function ware and I wanted to expand off of this idea of creating something simply to appreciate its beauty.  I wanted to tie the fragility of the piece in with the surface design to address the fragility of nature and the beautiful balance of all living things. This piece explores the present day notion of nature - how the current society views nature, how we respect or disrespect it, and especially our connection to it.

Pottery is typically functional, just as many things in nature are used for some purpose, but I wanted to create a piece that wouldn’t be functional in an attempt to remind us to appreciate the beauty of nature and not only see it as a means for our improvement or growth. Humans are highly connected with the rest of the natural world and depend so much upon it, let us remember to celebrate these beautiful symbiotic relationships.

Platter: Space Whales

I took the opportunity to practice a more detailed application of overglaze with this platter. I applied underglaze and then carved three floating whales into still leather hard clay. Once bisqued, I added more detail with overglaze.