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My fifteen years of working with ceramics have been transformative, eye-opening, progressive, evolutionary, and fulfilling in both my personal and professional lives. My work has shifted greatly, from being the single-object vessels I first began exhibiting, to my current work, which is a series of multi-object, mixed-media-based installations. From the beginning, whether unconsciously or not, the vessel continued to be a prominent and significant aspect of my consecutive work. I initially did not associate or consider the word vessel when addressing my work because I associated it primarily with functional works and, therefore, wheel-throwing or pottery. I am not a potter. In spite of my earliest pieces, I have always regarded my work as sculptural or as having sculptural elements and accents. But the idea of the vessel is as versatile as the clay itself. My ideal of the vessel has grown and transformed alongside my own personal growth over the years and continues to parallel the mindset and concepts of what my current ceramic aesthetics have evolved into.
Traditionally, the vessel has been in use for millennia, encompassing every civilization and culture around our globe. Vessels have been used to store, ferment, transport, protect, preserve, and contain all types of alimentos (food). But I’m not here to get you interested in all those historical facts and examples. You have all that information at your fingertips, should you choose to explore it. I’m more interested in what vessels have meant for me, literally, even when I wasn’t aware of it, what they have meant for my culture and family over generations. And how the vessel has come to establish itself, continuously and everchanging, both physically and metaphorically, in my current installations.
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