BFA exhibition In the Vernacular, December 2012
All work is mid-range maiolica on a red clay body, fired to cone 6 in an electric kiln.
Artist Statement 2012
I focus on primarily wheel-thrown ceramic objects that are intended for functional, domestic use. Tradition plays a large role in my process. In the spring of 2011, I was exposed to an exceptional amount of art during a semester of studying abroad in Tuscany. The streets, literally littered with images of the Madonna, embodied the intersection of daily life and religious devotion in Italy. With consideration of this juxtaposition, I reappropriate Marian iconography in combination with domestic patterns for use on vessels. By displacing symbols that have, in many cases, been elevated to the status of an icon, I am able to make their historical, cultural, and devotional significance easily accessible by placing them on functional ceramic ware. Though I am at times using intensely religious material, I mean only to show a reverence for tradition rather than to comment on the role of such images in religious devotion; the work is aimed at neither the believer nor the layperson.
As in my reliance on art-historical motifs of the past, my work is finished using an historical glazing technique called maiolica. Developed in Spain and Italy to mimic Eastern porcelain ware, maiolica involves applying colored stains over the top of an opaque, white, base glaze. Though my interest in maiolica arose strictly for aesthetic reasons, the combination of this method of glazing with geographically related iconographical images and traditional maiolica patterns on domestic wares creates a deep interweaving of history and domestic life.