Fragile Jewel
Fragile:
• Delicate and vulnerable…easily broken.
Jewel:
• A precious stone…a term representing my maternal lineage.
The impetus for this body of work comes from the early experiences I had caring for my first child. I was both consumed and terrified by his fragility. These sculptures represent both the preciousness and beauty of this new life…like a fragile jewel. They become forms frozen in time…just as I hoped to capture and bottle each new moment with my baby. Yet, new life embodies many opposites as does this work…fragility and strength, growth and decay, intimacy and grandeur, exterior skin and interior spirit. These opposites guided my visual choices and create a palpable tension in the final work. Intimacy of scale and emphasis on individuality provide the viewer with an understanding of their delicacy and importance. The surfaces of the sculptures are adorned with ceramic lusters articulating the existing architecture of the forms and amplifying the preciousness of the object. Abstraction allows the work to reference the figure, landscape, and geology.
Creating a process of discovery for myself is important when I make my artwork. I set up a series of parameters or “rules” within which I can play. For this body of work, I utilized a small number of casting molds in order to both intensely explore in the moment, while resulting in a series of sculptures that read as the same family of forms. Each piece was meticulously considered requiring my constant presence. The material was pushed to its physical limit so to embody the fragility of new life. With the use of tiny tools and multiple firings, each sculpture was “cared” for in a deeply human way.