Connecting with clay helps me stay grounded. I am so lucky to be able to teach pottery at my school. As a teacher, sometimes it is difficult to complete clay projects simply due to the time to attend to the clay before it dries. I have been wanting to fire up the raku kiln again and was able to do so over the break. I created a grouping of raku rhino horns as a memorial to the animals so needlessly slaughtered.
My sculptural clay pieces express my deep affinity of the natural world. The act of building clay forms with my hands and heart- using fire to alter the new form, brings me closer to the earth. The deep impression of winding tree bark, or the burnished surface of an animal’s horns- to the folds of skin on a torso, are all an act of reverence to me, bending to the clay’s will to turn it into stone.
Through this process I rediscover myself. Two recent sculptural pieces are featured here.
“Unrequited” speaks of objectifying women,in this case, Daphne, transforming into a laurel tree to escape Apollo’s unwanted romantic advances. Ironically, in this myth, both of them share an eternal unrequited love. Apollo continued to wear a crown of laurel leaves form that moment on. “Rhino Tears” brings attention to a pile of butchered but beautiful rhinoceros horn, sold on the black market for thousands to be used as an aphrodisiac. The phallic horns represent themes of both power and fragility. Unlike the elephant, the gentle rhinoceros doesn’t use their horns for attack, but only to help rear their young, and perhaps threaten of needed. If removed properly with sedation, the horn would grow back within 3 years.
Unrequited - just finished in the studio