Specimens and objects for a tomb

I’m trying to channel the voice of my own natural universe, building forms through process as well as observation, and adding enough varieties of scale, color, texture and pattern to make this clay world convincing. It includes seeds, pods, fruit, flowers, peels and detritus, as well as invented specimens– all things linked to life and the passage of time.

Wet clay is alive and sensual, an extension of the body that reflects back to us what we imagine we are made of, as transformative potential, as actors in our own universe. Then it gets fired and becomes fixed, both material reality and symbolic artifact of a previous life. And yet with this loss comes new purpose, as celebration, ritual and commemoration. In clay, everything can be reborn into the realm of an enormous and palpable present which can contain both past and present. There will always be fresh blueberries; it was always meant to be.

Seeds, fruit and flowers.

Faience covered fruit and eggplants.

Mostly banana peels.

Porcelain heart.

Small porcelain worm spine.

Large worm spine.

Parlement of the Birds. Terracotta.

Organ Corral. Terracotta.