"The Space Between" 45" x 25" x 5" steel, bamboo, lacquer, paint
This piece "The Space Between" was accepted into an exhibition Carolina's Got Art a the Elder Gallery in Charlotte, NC. Lance Esplund was the juror for the exhibition. He is the art critic for Bloomberg News and Muse. It was an honor to be selected by Lance Esplund for the exhibition and to have "The Space Between" chosen for the First Place Award. Below is the statement I wrote to accompany the piece.
"The Space Between" Statement
The vessel is a metaphor of interior
and exterior, of containment, of transport and journey. It is both universal and personal. A
vessel can symbolize self. The vessel in all its many forms is my muse. These
vessels are enigmatic being boat pod shapes, or pod tool shapes or tool vessel
shapes. Once a piece is begun, it takes on a life or story of it’s own. As I
respond to the process and materials, a dialogue develops between the piece,
the material, and me. The vessel allows me a vehicle to investigate new ideas,
materials, narratives and relationships.
A number of years ago I became
interested in how shadows extend the presence of a piece. Shadows are ethereal,
always changing and can appear very solid yet one cannot touch a shadow, it
touches you. For many years I have explored clay to create very solid and
stable vessel forms. I am
interested in how shadows extend the presence of a piece. In “The Space
Between” the individual vessels represent the essence of a vessel, stripped down
to its basic elements, its skeleton.
The essence of the vessel is felt and brought alive by its shadows and
its interplay of shadows with its neighbor’s shadows.
I am interested in duality and the
idea of a grouping of vessels that are intrinsically bound together by
placement and the interplay of shadows. “The Space Between” explores
relationships and inter-relationships between individual pieces. This grouping
of vessels is intrinsically connected by the interplay of shadows. Created
separately, these individual pieces are presented as a grouping to strengthen
and highlight a sense of similarity and contrast. A dialogue is created by the
contrast of line, and form and how the 3-dimensional forms are translated into
2-dimensional shadows. Each vessel
is an individual, separate and yet touched by the neighboring vessel’s shadow.
The shadows overlap and weave together creating a silent conversation whispered
on the wall. These negative spaces and shadows enter into the dialogue,
extending the piece and representing the silent energy or the unsaid between
individuals.
