Vessels for Collective Grieving
Made exclusively from reclaimed clay with a naturally brown tone that is enhanced in reduction atmospheres. Firing temperatures in this series range from cone 5 or 6 (midrange) to cone 10 (high fire).
I started making this body of work to focus, contain, express, and honor feelings of loss that are at once individual and collective. I am particularly concerned with the disproportionate impact of recent (or current) events to brown bodies, and to everyone with the capacity for pregnancy. I therefore chose a color palette evocative of the intersections between colorism, feminism, and environmentalism — shades of green throughout the work reference my own olive skin tone, as well as life-giving properties associated with the earth and the stereotypically feminine.