Residency at Yingge Ceramics Museum

In the late spring of 2018, I had the wonderful experience of being invited to spend three months as an artist in residence at the Yingge Ceramics Museum in New Taipei City, Taiwan.  I took this opportunity for unrestricted work time, plus the access to large kilns, to create a larger than life size (7.5′ length) sculpture of a sleeping woman, titled Nature of Memory.

Nature of Memory is inspired in part by the expressive tenacity of the ancient bristlecone pine trees of the western United States. I’m drawn to the longevity of the bristlecone trees, to their ability to adapt and survive in harsh conditions, and to the idea that their distinctive shapes are formed slowly, season by season, as a living record of impressions spanning several thousand years. The intersection of time, weather, slow decay and slow growth create poetry in form and surface. Within my studio practice, I consider the beauty that comes from the passage of time, and I create figurative work that celebrates the human connection to the natural world. Carving deeply into the clay, I develop a textured skin of imagery, fueled by a love of storytelling, anthropology and natural history. With Nature of Memory I explore the possibility of what would it be like if people experienced a similar aging and transformational process, as an external expression of how their internal emotional stories shape and sculpt their lives.

 

   

 

     

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