Could You House Your Being Here?
Rivers Gallery, June 30-August 11
Artist Talk: June 30, 5:30pm
Opening Reception: June 30, 6-8pm
“Native clay, weathered trees, my fingers and thumbs, and a continually evolving sense of animal-ness bring these works into being, the slow concentration of time spent wandering the rivers and ridges of these Appalachian foothills, condensed from hours, days, weeks, months and years of living in this place. Connecting with our natural environment on a daily basis, the subtle yet pervasive details of this ecosystem, the seasonal cycle of plants and animal life that continue, often as oblivious of us as we are of them, infiltrate my imagination, bringing to life what I imagine to be my own animal habits, patterns and marks, my indigenous touch.
Cutting down dying trees, picking out limbs that already have a whispering voice, a hollow interior space and edges that have healed over time, watching wood weather, waiting for the stage that is still solid, but leaning into the inevitable fact that we will all return to the earth.
Digging clay from among rocks and roots, separating out for the smooth and ochre rich fine particles, soaking it down in an old bathtub with rainwater, laying it out to stiffen up, and aging it in bags for 18 months until it is elastic and lively.
I invite you to consider these materials and their deeply natural footprint. They are solid and real: stable as long as they are kept out of the elements, and impermanent, simply returning to the ground as clay and carbon when they are allowed to reintegrate with their natural, dynamic environment. As are we all.”
“Could you house your being in this space, or is this the body, where we keep our sensitive spirit and heart, our pulsing organs and wildly running mind? Explore through the senses of another creature, find a small spot on the internal rim to curl up, to find comfort. Accept the challenge to be closer to nature, to embrace unprocessed, un-purchased materials, and to find aesthetic value in something natural.”
