The summer solstice has passed. The last year and a half have been
spent processing my Dad's suicide and my unexpected divorce. Now it is
time for me to use my creativity to begin a new chapter. I have been asked to be in an exhibition at Blue Spiral 1 opening August 2nd. It is a group exhibition themed around the Subconscious and Memory.
I have chosen to continue exploring the vessel, images from my recent
dreams and the idea that words record our memories, dreams and
subconscious. I love words and the act of writing or in this case physically inscribing. This is a detail of a salt-fired porcelain vessel that is part of a grouping that will be in the exhibition. The piece "Holding on to...." was inspired by my Dad's alzheimer's. He had a little black book that he carried religiously and wrote down everything, it was his way of keeping hold of his mind. When ever he got lost from this reality, he would take out his book and find what he had written down, what he was suppose to be doing, what he needed to do. etc. Not everything could be kept track of so easily and so the past filled in, replaying over and over again. The buttery surface of the helios porcelain allows one to write easily. I inscribed words, stories, memories all over the surfaces of the vessels and paddle blades. Areas of words were covered with shellac to reserve them and then the unprotected areas were washed with water and a sponge, gently washing away the words and what they meant. Subsequent layers of shellac and washing created a surface where there were areas washed away and areas still very real and readable. The sparkle of the glass inside the vessels alludes to the sparkle of spirit inside all of us. The pieces was a wonderful piece to work on.
"Holding On To...."
30" x 39" x 4," salt fired porcelain, oxides, steel wire, linen thread