Collaborations

Years
2014-2023

From August through December 2022, I worked in the studio on Fridays with Nancy Selvin, sourcing text for Tragedies and Horrors: Conversations Over Tea. I researched periodicals and books to gather text that strives to capture the sense of tragedy and horror of our times. With the COVID-19 pandemic, effects of climate change, war in Ukraine, racist killings, mass shootings, and threats to our democracy, trauma, itself, has become endemic, part of our everyday conversation. The work was on view January 21 through April 2, 2023 in Handle Carefully: The Power of Words and Clay, Scripps College’s 78th Ceramic Annual Exhibition, Claremont, CA

Nancy Selvin Tragedies and Horrors: Conversations Over Tea 2022 Ceramic, watercolors on paper, screened text 60 tea bowls (30 in clay and 30 watercolors)

A-Pocket-lyptic Flasks

These porcelain slip cast flasks feature images of Norilsk, Russia, one of the most polluted cities in the world. The city’s inhabitants live in a toxic wasteland of severe pollution with acid rain and smog. The artists share a strong conviction about the deadly effects of industrial emissions on the health of the inhabitants who must live there, and seek to honor their struggle by finding beauty in the bleak. The five flasks represent the five factories in Norilsk, and are marked with the geographical coordinates of Norilsk and an emblem reflecting the history of the city.

Collaboration with Vlada Dronova

2015
Slip cast porcelain, glaze, and decals Photo Credit: Vlada Dronova

Abandonment Series: Russian Porcelain Factories

The movement toward globalization and technological development for the purpose of commercial profit has displaced the human element in the production of objects that are historically and culturally significant and distinctive to individual countries and peoples. This series of bottles is inspired by the beauty and cultural relevance of the Russian porcelain pieces once hand painted in cobalt by local craftsmen. The Abandonment Series pays homage to a lost art and seeks to redefine it for our age by combining modern printmaking techniques and design with traditional handcraft. The porcelain vodka bottles are slip cast and hand finished with cobalt decal application. The geographical coordinates are a timeless way to mark the location of the factories that will soon only exist through memory.

Collaboration with Vlada Dronova

2014 Slip cast porcelain, glaze, and decals Photo credit: Vlada Dronova