New artist's statment of sorts to accomodate the new stuff

Preparations for my BFA show were focused on my favorite ceramic forms, ball strings and fkd-up bowl modules. I had originally planned to fill the gallery with these, but a series of unfortunate events caused me to pause, reflect on my work and I concluded these ceramic forms were now frivolous. My mother passed away at 83 in September of 2006, my cat, Kitty Boom-Boom, a beloved family member disappeared into the night in August 2008, my father passed away, at 85, 2 weeks later and now to add to the misery I am getting a divorce from my husband of 7 years and a relationship of 11.

While cleaning out my parents possessions my sister would call with the current list of things she didn’t want so would ask my other sister and I if we wanted whatever she deemed important enough to not throw away. Among the detritus was my mother’s doll, historically the brunt of family jokes in its rotting porcelain and fabric hideousness. I opted to take the doll and her clothes, and while the doll lies hidden in a chest, possibly harkening evil from the deep, its clothes have become the source of my creativity a new obsession and a connection with my mother as a little girl, someone I never knew.

Originally planned to be dipped in porcelain, then fired, which would destroy the original, enough people lamented the eventual loss and discouraged me from destroying each article of clothing. First suggestion was to cover the dress in ink and run it through the press on rice paper. The results were amazing: delicate and romantic yet creepy. The next suggestion was Rayograms. For the first Rayograms I placed the dresses flat and straightened on the photo paper, which resulted in melancholic shroud like shadows. The next step was to position the dresses as if dancing and the images of these are alive and energetic yet still melancholic. Thirdly, each dress is pressed deeply into a clay slab so the lace and creases texture the clay and then the clay is rubbed with black glaze, which settles only into the creases.

I plan to continue exploring the possibilities of these dresses and maybe will bring Satan’s spawn out of hiding where she may be adored for her generosity in donating to my obsession.