This body of work began with thoughts of my grandmother, who, as a lone teenager, immigrated from Hungary. I wondered who stood by her side and translated Emma Lazarus's “The New Colossus” poem to her when her passenger ship entered New York Harbor and viewed The Statue of Liberty:
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.
The wretched refuse of your teeming shores.
Send these homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
The combined written word on clay is not a particularly unique notion –the uniqueness of this project is the message it conveys. The translation of a portion of a single poem is made by translators with a mutual dream for a better life in the United States of America. It is my intention to open a portal to vision, form, and dimension with words, to impact and encourage others to take note of the richness of the community that surrounds them.
To observe the richness and diversity of the many cultures that have entered the United States, I transcribed this portion of “The New Colossus” onto porcelain clay in twenty-five languages provided by friends and acquaintances, sixteen of which you see displayed here. These unique slip-cast porcelain pieces represent seven decades of immigration between the years 1950-2013. Each of the 7.5 x 11" crumpled fragile porcelain letters references the tenuous time we live in. Individual porcelain pieces are accompanied by a QR code link to a voice translation of each language.
‘Give me your tired' from the The New Colossus series, 2020
white porcelain clay and paper QR code, sixteen translations
in various languages
approx. 11 x 7.5 x 0.25” each
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 035.052/54 - Combined Use of Ink & Clay
Sale Price (plus tax): $2,500.00 ea.
America's port of entry has changed. Immigrants no longer travel to our country via passenger ships, or come through Ellis Island for processing into our country. To signify this change in procedures, an array of miniature white porcelain suitcases commemorates travel during the late 20th-21st century, and the plight of today's immigrant.
Fragile Cargo installation, 2021
white porcelain clay-individual suitcase
6.5 x 5 x 3.35”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 035.053 - Combined Use of Ink & Clay
Sale Price (plus tax): $6,250.00
Voices, 2021
porcelain
35 x 45 x 28”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 036.055 - Clay Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $1,500.00
We are constantly exposed to people, be they friends, the internet, influences, celebrities, writers, or politicians. Between all those voices from time immemorial occasionally drops a nice moment of wisdom worth preserving, thinking about, and even repeating. However, often those statements get lost and overwhelmed by all the other voices we are surrounded by. I have chosen to preserve at least some of that wisdom & ideas using one of the more permanent medium known to man. And yet, I fully expect some statements to get lost in the crowd, and not all will be read. But that is fine. As long as you read even one, I have done my job.
IN VINO VERITAS, 2021
stoneware
12.5 x 45 x 9”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 036.056 - Clay Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $562.50
In Vino Veritas. In wine truth. The last administration has essentially introduced itself with the phrase “We have alternate facts.” on January 22, 2017.
Drunks do not always remember what they said while under influence. And people often get drunk on power. Since the now infamous phrase was introduced, facts became unstable, falling like bowling pins. But as time went on and the amount of questionable information kept growing, I kept thinking of this piece more like 99 bottles on the wall. With the help of internet and even TV networks there is now little left of which we are certain and on which most of us can agree. Thus not many bottles are left on the wall.
This full color, multi-plate etching represents the newest addition to a series of work based on my years as a newspaper reporter and editor depicting the insensitivity and misuse of power I saw while working my first years as a reporter just out of college. I later earned degrees in Art and combined that knowledge with my early life experiences in journalism.
Underwood, 2021
full color, multiple-plate etching
36 x 28 x 2”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 037.057 - Ink Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $856.25
EXIT is a portrait of a cheap apartment building, either a place of opportunity or one of last resort. It's the place where people go as a way station in their search for more. It's a place of hopes and dreams, a step on the way to something better. It's the sound of kids playing in the hallway, the smell of food cooking, neighbors coming and going, living their lives. But for some, it's the last stop. A place to rest and wait out the time that's left. A TV is on in the middle of the night. The traffic sounds coming in through open windows during the hot summer months. It's the place where no one wants to end up.
EXIT, 2020
ink
30 x 19”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 038.058 - Ink Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $2,500.00
Car tracks in the snow like calligraphic swoops. An empty sign marquee framing the sky. The graphic pattern is found in the foundation of ancient ruins. These and other mundane forms, patterns, and textures capture my attention and ask to be translated into a new form, one that is wearable. What these things share are impermanence and unevenness, a sense of serendipity. We cling to the idea of control and perfection, but these are imaginary and unattainable.
I try in my work to celebrate the slightly broken beauty in the world and in ourselves. There is irony in trying to capture the temporal and imperfect and make it precious in the form of jewelry. I often take life a bit too seriously. By making bold, asymmetrical, playful jewelry, I invite myself and others to cast off restrictive notions about life.
As I'm sure many people are doing as the pandemic nears its end, I'm musing about travel. I dig into folders of images for something to take me away. That place was Italy.
My work tends to be bold and colorful, using simple forms. But I'm enamored of ancient places, and especially when sleek and modern contrasts with crumbling and ancient. In Rome and other Italian cities, chunks of antiquity are often preserved and displayed in surprisingly contemporary ways. A vibrant orange wall studded with a single broken capital from a column. The unexpected context makes us reflect differently on a past that might not be so different from our present.
With this brooch, I combine stylized overlapping arch forms with a charming bit of marble-engraved text from the Basilica of Our Lady in Trastevere in Rome, my own way of preserving antiquity in a new context.
Roman Arches Brooch, 2021
polymer clay, nickel-plated pin clutch
3.125 x 3.125 x 0.125”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 039.059 - Combined Use of Ink & Clay
Sale Price (plus tax): $406.25
Type Collage Brooch, Gold and Orange, 2021
polymer clay, gold powder, image transfer
3.75 x 1 x 0.125”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 039.061 - Combined Use of Ink & Clay
Sale Price (plus tax): $406.25
Car tracks in the snow like calligraphic swoops. An empty sign marquee framing the sky. The graphic pattern is found in the foundation of ancient ruins. These and other mundane forms, patterns, and textures capture my attention and ask to be translated into a new form, one that is wearable. What these things share are impermanence and unevenness, a sense of serendipity. We cling to the idea of control and perfection, but these are imaginary and unattainable.
I try in my work to celebrate the slightly broken beauty in the world and in ourselves. There is irony in trying to capture the temporal and imperfect and make it precious in the form of jewelry. I often take life a bit too seriously. By making bold, asymmetrical, playful jewelry, I invite myself and others to cast off restrictive notions about life.
When I used to teach graphic design, one of my favorite typography projects to assign students was abstract letterform compositions. Cutting up and rearranging letterforms allows for appreciation of positive/negative space and the sensual or rigid forms of letters. It forced students to study the specific shapes of letters without the distraction of meaning.
All these years later, I've embarked on a series of wearable type collages in that same spirit. The process involves ink toner applied to polymer clay in its uncured (unbaked) form, removing the paper to leave only the image. I add dimension and contrast with bits of colored clay that mirror some of the accidental cut-up letters.
In this brooch, transparent clay as the canvas creates an extra element of dimension.
Perhaps the viewer tries to decipher the letters, even though there's nothing to figure out, only appreciating the forms.
Type Collage Pendant, Gray, Red, Gold, 2021
polymer clay, brass, sterling silver, image transfer
3.75 x 2 x 0.125”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 039.060 - Combined Use of Ink & Clay
Sale Price (plus tax): $431.25
Car tracks in the snow like calligraphic swoops. An empty sign marquee framing the sky. The graphic pattern is found in the foundation of ancient ruins. These and other mundane forms, patterns, and textures capture my attention and ask to be translated into a new form, one that is wearable. What these things share are impermanence and unevenness, a sense of serendipity. We cling to the idea of control and perfection, but these are imaginary and unattainable.
I try in my work to celebrate the slightly broken beauty in the world and in ourselves. There is irony in trying to capture the temporal and imperfect and make it precious in the form of jewelry. I often take life a bit too seriously. By making bold, asymmetrical, playful jewelry, I invite myself and others to cast off restrictive notions about life.
When I used to teach graphic design, one of my favorite typography projects to assign students was abstract letterform compositions. Cutting up and rearranging letterforms allows for appreciation of positive/negative space and the sensual or rigid forms of letters. It forced students to study the specific shapes of letters without the distraction of meaning. All these years later, I've embarked on a series of wearable type collages in that same spirit. The process involves ink toner applied to polymer clay in its uncured (unbaked) form, removing the paper to leave only the image. I add dimension and contrast with bits of colored clay that mirror some of the accidental cut-up letters.
Perhaps the viewer tries to decipher the letters, even though there's nothing to figure out, only appreciating the forms. But in attempting to, a more intimate dialog is created between the wearer and the viewer.
100 Dollars on a String, 2021
terra-cotta on paper, string, and tape
2.25 x 6 x 2.5”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 040.063 - Clay Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $625.00
My work explores dualities and the space found in the in-between. I am interested in the ephemeral, the natural world, and the seemingly permanent aspects of history. I use iconography linked to my experiences to explore the complexity found in what it means to be ’American.’
I use materials such as seeds, leaves, and clay as symbols for truth/healing, which I connect to the human condition. Nature becomes a collaborator as drying leaves curl or cut plants callous showing the passing of time. Re-creating images, objects, and memories allow me to look deeper at their significance to the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of Americanness.
Using personal narratives as a starting point for sculptures and time-based installations, I investigate themes of memory, desire, and healing. I am looking at inheritance across family generations. For example, the inherited belief of using labor as a tool for achieving dreams. Deciphering between the inherited, the acquired, and the imposed is where my work currently lies.
Biyuyo de 50, 2020
terra-cotta and wax
7.5 x 8 x 15”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 040.062 - Clay Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $1,250.00
My work explores dualities and the space found in the in-between. I am interested in the ephemeral, the natural world, and the seemingly permanent aspects of history. I use iconography linked to my experiences to explore the complexity found in what it means to be ’American.’
I use materials such as seeds, leaves, and clay as symbols for truth/healing, which I connect to the human condition. Nature becomes a collaborator as drying leaves curl or cut plants callous showing the passing of time. Re-creating images, objects, and memories allow me to look deeper at their significance to the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of Americanness.
Using personal narratives as a starting point for sculptures and time-based installations, I investigate themes of memory, desire, and healing. I am looking at inheritance across family generations. For example, the inherited belief of using labor as a tool for achieving dreams. Deciphering between the inherited, the acquired, and the imposed is where my work currently lies.
Three Ways to Make 50 Dollars, 2020
terra-cotta on paper
29 x 69”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 040.064 - Clay Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $1,250.00
My work explores dualities and the space found in the in-between. I am interested in the ephemeral, the natural world, and the seemingly permanent aspects of history. I use iconography linked to my experiences to explore the complexity found in what it means to be ’American.’
I use materials such as seeds, leaves, and clay as symbols for truth/healing, which I connect to the human condition. Nature becomes a collaborator as drying leaves curl or cut plants callous showing the passing of time. Re-creating images, objects, and memories allow me to look deeper at their significance to the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of Americanness.
Using personal narratives as a starting point for sculptures and time-based installations, I investigate themes of memory, desire, and healing. I am looking at inheritance across family generations. For example, the inherited belief of using labor as a tool for achieving dreams. Deciphering between the inherited, the acquired, and the imposed is where my work currently lies.
My ceramic work is functional, minimal in form, and hand-crafted with graphic details. Feel-good words or 90's nostalgic elements I've cherished are displayed in bold, illustrative hand-drawn or hand-carved typography.
Influenced by the deeply treasured "blind emboss" treatment in the graphic and print world, you will see this fondness expressed in my carved ceramic piece as a blind emboss texture on clay. The tactile quality is expressed in raised letterforms on a single colored clay containing a bold message: "BADASS". Empowerment is expressed in the subtlety as you start or end your day with your BADASS mug.
Badass Espresso Mug - Carved, 2019
clay
3 x 2.75 x 2.75”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 041.065 - Clay Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $68.75
At times our loving parents try to pass on or show their inhumanity, indifference, intolerance, and indulgences. All I am asking you to do is to think about it but, Don’t Dump Your Shit On Me!
Don't Dump Your Shit On Me!, 2018
claybord, Hydrocal claybord solution, pasta
4.5 x 9 x 9”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 042.066 - Clay Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $1,250.00
This piece was inspired by early 2000's pharmaceutical advertisements. The cartoonish aesthetics can mask serious side effects. Die-abetes is an exploration and documentation of my struggles with diabetes and its monetary side effects. It shows the struggles between affording to maintain my health or rent. The cartoonish aesthetic is fun and inviting; however, it is much darker and sad upon further look.
Die-betes, 2021
clay
17 x 19 x 7”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 043.067 - Combined Use of Ink & Clay
Sale Price (plus tax): $375.00
In the ANIMAL TALES series, I join my love of stories and my love of animals with my compulsion to give new form and new meaning to the discards of our civilization. OCTOPUS:
What better animal from my Animal Tales series to submit to the Ink and Clay 45 than this natural ink producer! The repurposed book - Octopus, a factual Natural History by Mather, Anderson, and Wood is manipulated so that the printed type becomes a textural pattern floating behind the drawn image. Sheet glass from a repurposed picture frame is resized to fit the book. The front of the piece of glass is hand-drawn using glass/porcelain paint which is kilnfired into the glass. The reverse side is painted in acrylic for color. The painted glass image is then permanently affixed to the book. Handmade glass beads and shells adorn the piece and the base.
FUN FACTS ABOUT THE OCTOPUS:
• The Octopus does NOT have tentacles. They have 8 arms.
• The plural of Octopus is NOT Octopi. The plural is octopod.
• Because they have no skeleton, they can manage to fit themselves into tiny holes or crevasses.
• Octopus ink is toxic even to the octopus itself.
Octopus (three views ) (from the Animal Tales Series), 2021
mixed media sculpture
10 x 8.5 x 10.5”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 044.068 - Ink Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $612.50
We are surrounded and bombarded by color, but the tonality of a monochromatic print has the power to stop us in our tracks. The unsaturated images command our attention because shape, form, texture, context, and the play of light and shadow are simplified with sharpness and freshness. They enable us to focus on the subject. They are ‘easy’ on the eye.
Photographic images are transformed by Seltzer into "one at a time" intaglio inked etchings that don't utilize altered reality manipulations. And the prints can't be mechanically mass-produced with the stroke of a computer key.
Etchings have been created for centuries by the world's greatest artists. The use of non-toxic photopolymer plates brings the intaglio tradition into the 21st Century.
I came upon a letterpress tray that had been prepared for printing and laughed out loud as I immediately saw an unintentional visual pun: the Shakespearean text, as a set, gave new meaning to the prose within Hamlet's soliloquy. Hahnemühle Copperplate paper, Akua Ink, Charles Brand press.
Hamlet's Dilemma-To B, or not to B, 2019
photopolymer intaglio etching
19.25 x 15.25”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 045.069 - Ink Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $843.75
Story of Mankind, 2020
porcelain clay, underglazes, ceramic decals
2 x 10.5 x 10”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 046.071 - Clay Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $750.00
Is it real, or is it a trick of the eye? To a casual observer, my sculptures appear real - combinations of books and boxes, completed with additions of crossword puzzles, newspaper clippings, paintbrushes, stamps, postcards, a pencil, or even old nails. In reality, they are still-life sculptures created from porcelain slabs that are manipulated, molded, and printed upon.
The sculptures force me to use every tool in my ‘mental clay toolbox’ to determine how I can best produce a sculpture that appears real to the viewer. Sometimes that means, rolling clay slabs across paper to produce a paper-like texture. Other times it means rolling slabs on a piece of wood, making a clay template to produce the center layer of a piece of cardboard, or using a particular surface to roll out a leather-like texture on a slab. The text comes from antique stamps or rubber stamps that I design and make. These stamps are inked with underglazes and printed on raw clay. Other methods of producing two-dimensional text and images are through artist-made decals that are applied and fired onto the clay. All of these methods require multiple firings, sometimes as many as five or six firings. Most completed art pieces feature a combination of printed, pressed, and applied textures and texts.
Trompe l'oeil is an art of illusion, a game, artists play with viewers to raise questions about the nature of art and perception. The challenge of making clay objects appear real, forces me to question how to make the viewer believe the artwork is real when they are made of clay. I want the viewer to interact with my pieces - touch them, feel them, and take a second glance. What you feel when you view my sculptures is not what you see... ‘It's clay.’
Psyche of the Palette, 2020
porcelain clay, color decals, underglazes
3 x 12 x 12”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 046.097 - Clay Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $1,000.00
Is it real, or is it a trick of the eye? To a casual observer, my sculptures appear real - combinations of books and boxes, completed with additions of crossword puzzles, newspaper clippings, paintbrushes, stamps, postcards, a pencil, or even old nails. In reality, they are still-life sculptures created from porcelain slabs that are manipulated, molded, and printed upon.
The sculptures force me to use every tool in my ‘mental clay toolbox’ to determine how I can best produce a sculpture that appears real to the viewer. Sometimes that means, rolling clay slabs across paper to produce a paper-like texture. Other times it means rolling slabs on a piece of wood, making a clay template to produce the center layer of a piece of cardboard, or using a particular surface to roll out a leather-like texture on a slab. The text comes from antique stamps or rubber stamps that I design and make. These stamps are inked with underglazes and printed on raw clay. Other methods of producing two-dimensional text and images are through artist-made decals that are applied and fired onto the clay. All of these methods require multiple firings, sometimes as many as five or six firings. Most completed art pieces feature a combination of printed, pressed, and applied textures and texts.
Trompe l'oeil is an art of illusion, a game, artists play with viewers to raise questions about the nature of art and perception. The challenge of making clay objects appear real, forces me to question how to make the viewer believe the artwork is real when they are made of clay. I want the viewer to interact with my pieces - touch them, feel them, and take a second glance. What you feel when you view my sculptures is not what you see... ‘It's clay.’
Pieces of Peace, 2021
porcelain clay, underglazes
5 x 16 x 16”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 046.070 - Clay Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $2,250.00
Is it real, or is it a trick of the eye? To a casual observer, my sculptures appear real - combinations of books and boxes, completed with additions of crossword puzzles, newspaper clippings, paintbrushes, stamps, postcards, a pencil, or even old nails. In reality, they are still-life sculptures created from porcelain slabs that are manipulated, molded, and printed upon.
The sculptures force me to use every tool in my ‘mental clay toolbox’ to determine how I can best produce a sculpture that appears real to the viewer. Sometimes that means, rolling clay slabs across paper to produce a paper-like texture. Other times it means rolling slabs on a piece of wood, making a clay template to produce the center layer of a piece of cardboard, or using a particular surface to roll out a leather-like texture on a slab. The text comes from antique stamps or rubber stamps that I design and make. These stamps are inked with underglazes and printed on raw clay. Other methods of producing two-dimensional text and images are through artist-made decals that are applied and fired onto the clay. All of these methods require multiple firings, sometimes as many as five or six firings. Most completed art pieces feature a combination of printed, pressed, and applied textures and texts.
Trompe l'oeil is an art of illusion, a game, artists play with viewers to raise questions about the nature of art and perception. The challenge of making clay objects appear real, forces me to question how to make the viewer believe the artwork is real when they are made of clay. I want the viewer to interact with my pieces - touch them, feel them, and take a second glance. What you feel when you view my sculptures is not what you see... ‘It's clay.’
A Common Thread, 2020
relief print
20 x 16”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 066.098 - Ink Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $325.00
My favored art-making practices are printmaking and sculpture, wherein I experiment with the myriad media and methodologies concomitant with each. Thematic arcs in my work tend to vary depending on said media, but language is an element I find to be especially malleable, unbound by either motif or medium. In my print, papermaking, and watermarking work, I often experiment by layering seen and unseen text, exploring the various shades of meaning which can be derived from said text and its sometimes very literal subtext. Working with text overall, I look at the boundary between language and imagery: attempting to find where the resonance of image or object may be amplified by a thoughtful phrase or where the communicative power of words can be crowded out by a more visual, visceral experience.
Recently, I've been exploring frameworks and viewpoints-both literally, as in series involving windows and gates, but also figuratively, investigating structures of oppression, power, and privilege. In print, I look at a wide array of social justice concerns regarding everything from race to reproductive battles to trans rights. In sculpture, this tends to be more centered on explorations of the female body, often focusing on reproduction, maternity, or deliberate materiality. I lean towards solidity in physicality, towards intimate but largely asexual portrayals, frank and often unpretty. Despite this, though, I simultaneously refuse to ground myself too firmly in practical reality, instead choosing either mythologizing the norm or norming the mythological, exploring the limits of that liminality and striving not to hem too close to either disparate pole. This remains the case whether the mythology involved relates to the ancient stories I loved consuming as a child-or if it pertains to the more modern one in which I was raised. When portraying the reality of the imperfect human figure, I want to counter the exhaustion of the everyday by offering a tinge of situational unreality in order to reassert the boundlessness and semi-mystically of psychological existence even within a typically disdained or ignored form. In those moments I do leave behind the body, I turn instead often to creatures unreal or extinct, trying still to ground them and offer them quieter, somehow still relatable life.
Ceramic is central to my sculptural endeavors; the fact of literal earth is, in itself, grounding. Still, much of my recent work has been with polymer clays. I've been capitalizing on their wide range of colors, but more importantly, I've been able to explore their literal greater plasticity, increased flexibility, and longer untreated open time to experiment with the pliability of human expressiveness. I hope to translate these exercises back to traditional clay, allowing for deeper investment in the aforementioned psychological tableau, richer selves within physical forms rife with detailed extremities and body rolls, reaffirming personhood and value in figures and choices which are consistently societally undervalued, demeaned, or degraded.
I find meaning through understanding the order and structure of things. Visual order expresses relationships; in some cases, mathematical and mechanical, in others, natural and organic. In pursuing this interest, my work incorporates elements of both free-flowing and highly structured expression. I establish a set of rules that then governs the repetition of marks and gestures. I investigate the potential of these systems to generate intricate patterns and unexpectedly evocative forms. My goal is to slow time for the viewer and encourage extended studies both close up and from afar, in a quest for quietude and contemplation and thoughtful response from the viewer.
This drawing is part of my Decelerating Series, which involves repetitive mark-making according to a set of rules I devised using a single element or 'particle' of form -- like a handwritten character or an invented glyph. The marks scrawl across the page in an ordered but organic fashion, revealing my hand in the irregularity of the repeated gestures.
Just In Time, 2016
drawing, ink on paper
48 x 48 x 2”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 047.072 - Ink Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $9,000.00
I find meaning through understanding the order and structure of things. Visual order expresses relationships; in some cases, mathematical and mechanical, in others, natural and organic. In pursuing this interest, my work incorporates elements of both free-flowing and highly structured expression. I establish a set of rules that then governs the repetition of marks and gestures. I investigate the potential of these systems to generate intricate patterns and unexpectedly evocative forms. My goal is to slow time for the viewer and encourage extended studies both close up and from afar, in a quest for quietude and contemplation and thoughtful response from the viewer.
This drawing is part of my Decelerating Series, which involves repetitive mark-making according to a set of rules I devised using a single element or 'particle' of form -- like a handwritten character or an invented glyph. The marks scrawl across
Time Interval, 2021
drawing; ink on paper
53 x 40 x 2”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 047.073 - Ink Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $9,000.00
Speak Truth To Power, 2018
rubbing (graphite encaustic paint) with encaustic monotype
22 x 14”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 048.074 - Ink Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $875.00
For more than a decade, Caryl St. Ama has been working in the ancient medium of encaustic, consisting of beeswax, damar resin (a naturally occurring tree sap), and pigment. These pieces used incised, embossed, and fused wax to explore life in the Gulf Coast, specifically after the BP oil spill and Hurricane's Rita, Katrina, and Ike. This led to a period of work responding to weather events in California. St. Ama began to reflect on the disasters created by fire, earthquakes, and floods. Assaulted by the political climate beginning in 2016 through 2020, her work began to incorporate political slogans and text. The medium of encaustic is very flexible, and her works on paper use the pigmented beeswax as a printmaking media to explore this unprecedented period in American history. Speak Truth To Power, an encaustic monotype, came out of this period. The medium of encaustic has allowed St. Ama to work in a process-oriented manner and explore the areas of ecology, personal politics, and natural vs. man-made disasters she finds so compelling.
Collage of type and graphic elements taken from the May 09, 2021 edition of the L.A. Times.
A collage layout is divided into a checkerboard of alternating red and black squares without regard for where the color breaks occurred within the image’s individual components. The flat graphic colorizing method produced an unexpected depth and motion to the piece.
L.A. Times - May 09, 2021, 2021
2 color screenprint on canvas
25 x 20 x 1.5”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 049.075 - Ink Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $437.50
XPA (Expatriada), 2021
ink and acrylic on wood panel
16 x 20 x 2”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 050.076 - Ink Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $875.00
Inspiration comes from different corners of the world and different corners of the heart, everyday occurrences and hourly influences, formal education, and happenstance. Ability is trained or inbred... but without vast exposure to the world at large, the ability cannot always translate to forceful, lasting, evocative art.
Viviana Svidler began life in the jewel of a city called Buenos Aires. The vibrancy of this city with its far-flung influences exposed the artist to myriad different cultures, styles, and ways of life. At an early age, she showed tremendous artistic ability, which she channeled into her work as an architect.
But she could not avoid art for the sake of art. With scraps of free time shaved or stolen, the architect/artist began to explore different concepts as they applied to clay and painting as opposed to building beams and studs. Spatial relations, depth, light, as observed and not lived in, became the focus of her paintings. The textures of the human soul are her sculptures.
I am using visual tools to explore the current affairs (or phenomena) of why and how each event affects us. Together with the audience, I want to journey one step forward, seeking a greater awareness.
In this piece, I am juxtaposing the product and the consumer. Whether it's the opioid crisis, the cult of political leadership with its followers, or digital media and its users, one is first attracted to the ‘decoy.’ Then one descends into the vortex of an inescapable trap. As a result, the consumer is consumed.
Using a powerful ceramic medium, I want to show this vicious cycle of our many current crises.
Project :pills, 2021
grazed ceramic, acrylic paint
21 x 24.5 x 27”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 051.077 - Clay Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $15,000.00
In my work, titled Turning Through the Clouds, you will find that I have applied my metaphorical concepts in the same fashion as my other work, Hibiscus on a Buick Century. In Hibiscus on a Buick Century, my work reflects an emotion of an idea rather than a representation of the natural world as it exists. Curves, reflections, flowing lines, and movement are often embodied in the work and this one. The opaque qualities of gouache and ink produce flat shapes of color. Metaphorical substitutions further add to my arsenal of strategies for varying composition and design. Images are joined together in such a way that it immediately draws viewers to this uncommon aesthetic reality, causing them to ponder what vivacious act is involved here.
Turning Through The Clouds, 2018
gouache and ink
25 x 32 x 2”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 052.078 - Ink Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $11,250.00
Sprouts, 2018
ceramic
19.5 x 14 x 5”
Courtesy of the artist
In Hibiscus on a Buick Century, my work reflects an emotion of an idea rather than a representation of the natural world as it exists. Curves, reflections, flowing lines, and movement are often embodied in the work. The opaque qualities of gouache and ink produce flat shapes of color. Metaphorical substitutions further add to my arsenal of strategies for varying composition and design. In this case, the floral symbolism helps to enhance visual interest in the viewer's mind. These images are joined together in such a way that it immediately draws viewers to this uncommon aesthetic reality, causing them to ponder what vivacious act is involved here.
Hibiscus on a Buick Century, 2019
gouache and ink
23 x 28 x 2”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 052.079 - Ink Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $9,375.00
The process of making work is equal to or more important than the final outcome. Each piece begins as an idea or desire to explore one of the many technical aspects of printmaking. I start by collecting images, sketches, and textures and use these to begin creating prints, drawings, or collages. As I develop the image, I try to avoid planning too far ahead by intuitively responding to each step of the process. I deliberately leave visual evidence of deletions, corrections, or accumulation of marks as a form of documenting the process.
I do not intend to create autobiographical images, but through the process of developing meaning, I often create narratives that are based on personal experience or point of view. It is through my own experience I hope to explore and relate to universal human themes.
Lover Boy, 2021
screenprint
19 x 14”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 053.080 - Ink Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $500.00
The process of making work is equal to or more important than the final outcome. Each piece begins as an idea or desire to explore one of the many technical aspects of printmaking. I start by collecting images, sketches, and textures and use these to begin creating prints, drawings, or collages. As I develop the image, I try to avoid planning too far ahead by intuitively responding to each step of the process. I deliberately leave visual evidence of deletions, corrections, or accumulation of marks as a form of documenting the process.
I do not intend to create autobiographical images, but through the process of developing meaning, I often create narratives that are based on personal experience or point of view. It is through my own experience I hope to explore and relate to universal human themes.
Robot Boy, 2019
screenprint
19 x 14”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 053.081 - Ink Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $500.00
Most ampersands I have come across are organic shapes. The one submitted is angular. Although I consider an ampersand a symbol of connection: you have to have two elements, I wanted to explore Ampersand 21 as a rusted piece of a once strong connection.
Ampersand 21, 2021
low-fire paper clay, metal coating, and patina
19 x 15 x 4”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 054.082 - Clay Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $1,187.50
In Rescue Breathing, I created a memorial to George Floyd, composed of three clay cloth, swaddling elements, and two porcelain tablets with Mishima, script reading, "I can't breathe" on one side, and "Share my breath" on the other side. It speaks to our need to grow as a society: protecting human life and sharing our breath with all people and all races. I am a teacher, and our number one priority in the care of our students is their health and safety. I dream of a world where the police put the health and safety of all people as their top priority. This memorial seeks to bring attention to our shared humanity and forecasts a time where we can be better as a society. The pieces sit upon a worn, weathered, and distressed board that mimics the pavement where Floyd's life was taken. I intentionally placed the elements on a sterile, clean, stainless steel table to set up contrast and tension in the arrangement.
I create environments in collage and three-dimensional still-life arrangements that not only capture moments from daily life but also unfurl fantastical settings from my imagination. Stamps, envelopes, scraps of fabric, and patterned paper detritus are composed in arrangements, setting up compositions and a sense of play of color, texture, and space.
Slip and under-glaze painted ‘clay textile’ slabs swaddle and form the skin and foundation for my clay works. Paper which folds, cloth which drapes, and vines which intertwin, work to house and interact with the arrangements. Colors' ability to flirt with the onlooker and activate the space within each composition is a constant source of motivation.
In my paper collages, I work intuitively, in much the same way that I do with my clay work. I have always been drawn to the process of taking unrelated items and combining them together to form a whole: a structure and system. I tap into the world of trompe l'oeil in the work and remain profoundly compelled by the way that I can depict mundane and ephemeral objects like crinkled paper and folded cloth in clay, essentially recording transient moments in time. The transformation of mud to ceramics is tantalizing for me as an artist grounded in such an essential craft medium.
I am drawn in by the worlds created by 16th-century Dutch still-life painters and the feeling that something just happened, is about to happen, or is underway.
I seek to tap into the entropy held in the still-life arrangements and take it a step further in these 3-D collages and collage environments. I am compulsively drawn to the act of making by hand and procuring the ready-made and mixing up the two in the ‘Duchampian’ tradition. Collecting and squirreling things away, just in case, is part of my nature . . . Nothing is ever really safe from being repurposed. Pieces that sit on my studio shelves can always be rediscovered and combined with another form or composition.
Rescue Breathing, 2021
stoneware, porcelain, cone 6 ox., table, board, graphite
47 x 36 x 24”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 055.083 - Clay Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $3,750.00
She Alights on Her Roost is one of two of my recent prints that explores and exploits the image of chickens. In this one, Rene Magritte's magical portrait Man in a Bowler Hat, with its symbolic dove obscuring the artist's face, is employed—but both Magritte and the dove are transformed. The Magritte figure becomes a woman, and a humble chicken replaces the dove, making the two portraits different metaphors for the artist's creative efforts. In Magritte's painting, the familiar dove (or artist's spirit) flies effortlessly. But the chicken in "Roost" suggests another creative endeavor. In the natural world, even though a chicken has wings, it has a limited ability to fly. Most chickens succeed in reaching their aspirational goals—those coveted high roosts—only by exerting an exceptional effort flying straight up in the air like a helicopter to reach their perch. In the parallel print then, the transformed artist's creative flight succeeds, like the chicken's, thanks only to her formidable and unswerving vision.
She Alights on Her Roost, 2020
reductive woodcut and stencils
12.25 x 18.25”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 055.083 - Clay Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $1,500.00
Underground Letters (V2), 2019
risograph and typewriter
11 x 8.5”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 057.085 - Ink Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $1,500.00
I am a Graphic Designer; my job is to construct visuals to inform, inspire, and captivate. I am also a lover of typography, and almost all my Studio Art practices are heavily infused by typography in the environment around me. My recent work, Underground Letters, was inspired by the various signages and history of the subway stations of the Paris Metro. Serendipity and my background are the keys to my creative process, and I never shy away from opportunities to use different methods, materials, and processes to create and highlight.
I am a Graphic Designer, and my job is to construct visuals to inform, inspire, and captivate. I am also a lover of typography, and almost all my Studio Art practices are heavily infused by typography in the environment around me. One of my creative interests focuses on using the computer programming language, processing, to re-image the form and content of typography. Serendipity and my Chinese background are the keys to my creative process, and I never shy away from opportunities to use different methods, materials, and processes to create and highlight.
Rong, 2019
processing 2, archive print
11 x 8.5”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 057.099 - Ink Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $1,250.00
"Myths have a way of bringing what is unconscious to the surface and putting a face on what we cannot see," Terry Tempest Willams.
I have long been an avid reader of Science Fiction and Fantasy. As a young adult, I devoured Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, rapt by talking animals, the world of the minotaur, centaurs, and other menacing dark creatures and spirits. Although I love stories from such authors as Ann McCaffrey, Tim Waggoner, Jodi Taylor, I was transformed by Neil Gaiman's book American Gods.
Gaiman's novel greatly affected my work, and consequently, I began to do research about mythical gods and goddesses and the folklore of my ancestors. The more I researched, the more I saw my work reflect the aspects of that lore, especially as it concerned the cycle of life, and specifically the final cycle. The mystical beings that were guardians of the underworld or the afterlife, such as Anubis, Hades, or Aciel or from the Celtic pantheon, were powerful, mysterious, and always a bit veiled. Perhaps our current culture would find the myths of such ancient societies non-substantial and without resonance, yet I find the stories and characters are timeless and reflect our human nature. The myths of our ancestors are full of the dilemma and consternation of our human condition. The human figure has been my vehicle for expression, especially as a means to speak about our human condition. Like Goya or Francis Bacon, I have leaned toward the grotesque, the unusual, or otherworldly. I use the anthropomorphic figure as a metaphor to expose human frailty, a connection to our base natures or animal instincts.
Prayer to Morrigan, 2020
ceramic, flax, bones, metal, paper, grass, sand, and claw
15 x 20 x 2.5”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 058.086 - Clay Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $2,500.00
Corona Cash, 2020
linoleum block print
10.5 x 23.75”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 059.087 - Ink Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $531.25
The global crisis created by the Coronavirus Pandemic motivated me to create a print that would deliver an empowering, encouraging, and unifying message while embodying a loving dose of both science and spirit. I based the image on the US one-dollar bill in hopes that it would call for unity and generosity in our quest to overcome Covid-19 around the world; and by expressing gratitude toward all who are doing their parts to cope with and ultimately eliminate the disease, I aim to support positive attitudes and a resilient response with the knowledge and confidence that we are all in this together and stronger when there is a team effort toward this urgent, common goal of complete eradication.
This piece is dedicated to Baby Jerry, who is still interned in the Manzanar cemetery. He is on top of the Soul Consoling Monument (my interpretation), surrounded by a lotus flower. The lotus flower is a Buddhist symbol of enlightenment, purity, and rebirth. Jerry is now transformed into a Jizo (a guardian deity of children) and finally able to leave camp. The base is a top of an old Japanese wooden box. It is dirty, old, and worn, like the conditions at the Manzanar.
Free, 2021
hand-built, cone 10 stoneware, soldered and sandblasted glass
17 x 11.75 x 12.25”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 060.088 - Clay Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $2,500.00
This piece deals with the Japanese American internment experience and its effect on future generations. Over 120,000 Japanese Americans were rounded up and illegally imprisoned. Their crime is looking like the enemy. They practiced gaman –to accept the unbearable with patience and dignity. They buried their memories, anger, and feelings of shame as they became “model Americans”. Most were silent, never speaking about their experiences.
This piece is for my aunt-in-law, Meiko Sakata. With no direct heirs, I felt it was important to create a memorial for her and to honor all those that were imprisoned. Among the mementos found after her death was her Manzanar camp high school yearbook –Our World. Her yearbook photo appears in the girl's hands.
The suitcase represents the “take only what you can carry” rule. The girl is searching for answers/clues of camp life and how it changed generations. What did they choose to take, and what did they bring home? The glass floor keeps the buried memories at bay. Hints are periodically poking out, like an archaeological dig. The guard tower and barbed wire on the glass background represent the barrier to the outside hostile and desolate environment. The quote is as relevant today as it was during World War II. The box is a found produce crate, representing the deplorable living conditions and a nod to the many Japanese farmers.
Mieko, 2021
cone 10 stoneware, found box, computer generated art
17.75 x 13.25 x 6.5”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 060.100 - Clay Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $3,750.00
I make work out of fragments as I feel that this is a metaphor for the way our lives are...disjointed and unrelated parts that make up a cohesive and meaningful whole. My goal is to supply the audience with a source for thought and personal speculation rather than present a didactic point of view, an attempt on my part to allow the viewer to experience the poetics of ambiguity. This piece incorporates text from an old newspaper personal ad that in its entirety reads: 'I am not ugly, buy me dinner. I am looking for a man in his mid-40's who can play the violin quite well'. This, together with the cast head of a British soldier from Napoleonic times on top of an old cast light fixture fitting, is a commentary on the passage of time and disappearance into the history of things we see as modern during their time. Everything is replaceable.
The Old Ways are the Best Ways, 2021
slip-cast porcelain, slips, stains, gold luster
12 x 7 x 6”
Image use courtesy of the artist
Item 060.100 - Clay Used in Creation of Work
Sale Price (plus tax): $312.50
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Zahner
Yoshihara
Yoshihara
Whitman
Weidel
Wang
Wang
Walters
Vorlicek
Torres
Tolley
Tolley
Thomas
Thomas
Tanaka
Svidler
Steenwyck
St Ama
Springwater
Springwater
Spilecki
Sidebottom
Sidebottom
Sidebottom
Seltzer
Schreiber-Smith
Schoon
Row
Ra
Pimienta
Pimienta
Pimienta
Pellicciotto
Pellicciotto
Pellicciotto
Paieda
Niswonger
Nagy, Marie
Nagy, Marie
Nagy, Joy
Nagy, Joy
Ink & Clay 45
Kellogg University Art Gallery, Cal Poly Pomona
August 19 - November 18, 2021
© 2020-21 Kellogg University Art Gallery
Cal Poly Pomona
The artworks filmed, photographed and presented herein were used courtesy of each participating artist, with their individual permission.
Some images used in the logo design and graphics may be from a previous year's competition.
Copyright of all artwork used or reproduced is owned by each individual artist and cannot be copied or reproduced without each artist's individual permission.
