Sarah Davis Gallery

~ Fine Art ~ Ceramic Sculpture ~

"The most I can hope for my work is that it will be appreciated for what it is ~ a free expression of thoughts and emotions."

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Artist Statement

My current work focuses on providing a physical identity for the Self and the emotional weight contained therein, specifically referencing memories and emotions related to various nuclear familial relationships.  There are two main concepts underlying this body of work: the emotional effects of dysfunctional family relationships and the duality of the mother-child relationship.  My intention with this work is to translate inner thoughts and emotions into a metaphorical physical object - I am working towards a body of work that engages the viewer on a very intimate and visceral level, for them to be visually drawn to the work and able to connect themselves to the markings, even if they are unclear as to why the piece moves them so. 

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The consistent theme running throughout my work is based on the psychology of human behavior - a physical output of the mind and body, an expression of someone searching for a way to extricate themselves from the complications of life.  Much of the work produced cannot help but reference nature, for I am drawn to nature and to its metaphorical relationship with the Self, my personal relationships and life.

The realization of such metaphors came to me one day during a graduate critique with my professor.  We were discussing one of my works, which was a display of about seventy dry, cracked, and "ceramicized" pieces of the earth that had been carefully extracted from the broken ground and then fired.  I realized that day, in the moment she said it, that my professor"s initial reaction to the work was true: the work represented something that was fractured beyond repair, possibly symbolizing a fractured life or fractured relationship, where someone has tried to pick the pieces up to put them back together, only to find that "fixing" it is simply not a possibility.

It has become abundantly clear that our life experiences shape who we are and can drastically influence the outcome of our work, especially when the work is permitted to develop more intuitively, as is my case.  The work I produce is typically unplanned, undesigned, unknowing until the moment of its creation and the evolution of its form.  Intuition, as in the way it is used here, is a phenomenon involving a reaction to the stored knowledge and experience within our mind, elusive though it may be.  All of the sensations, experiences, and feelings I keep within my Self transcend such intangible and abstract ideas into a physical manifestation.

Of course, while my work holds specific personal use and meaning for me, I would never wish to presume such interpretations unto others.  At the same time, while it is my intention to reference nature and open the viewer's mind to observing its intriguing beauty, it is certainly not my intention to re-create or re-present the natural world.  The most wonderful characteristic of art is that everyone is permitted their own vantage point and perspective.  Why would one ever have the desire to confine and restrain another's natural inclination to "read into" a work of art?  For me, such an ideology goes against the very definition of art as a free form of expressive creativity.

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