Howdy,
I’ve been glazing away in the studio lately in preparation for a two-person exhibition with Genevieve Waller coming up in May at Art Gym in Denver. We’ve decided on Phantom Potpourri as the title. There will be giant beaded fruits, golden toothpaste, sponge tapestries, pretzel sculptures, ceramic condiments…and more. Keep an eye on your inbox for more information about that exhibition!
Available Works
If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll already know that a selection of my work is now available on Testudo. I worked with an art photographer, Wes Magyar, for the first time and his lighting setup displays all the details of my sculptures much better than my usual DIY photos. If you’ve had your eye on some of my larger ceramic works, now is your chance to collect them.
Spin Cycle
The discerning collector might be especially interested in Spin Cycle, which is one of the more ambitious examples of my continuing sock motif. It’s partly inspired by the mound (large enough for my father to sleep on) of over 100 unpaired socks that sat in my parents bedroom for my entire childhood. We would occasionally attempt to pair them and deliver them to sturdy wooden drawers, but they mostly remained in laundry limbo. Perhaps this is why I am now so adamant about ensuring ALL my socks return from the dryer.
Building this piece was quite challenging, as the socks kept wanting to fold under their own weight. This required precise balance to counter any pressure points. There are no inner beams of ceramic support, just hollow socks. After that, moving it into the kiln in an unfired state was nerve-wracking, due to potential cracking under its own weight, but it entered with only a few ominous wobbles. I chose a white glaze without too much shine and a yellow-orange color that I also like to use for my cigarette butts. It was a fun build and I’d like to do some other sock towers in other colors/patterns/textures.
Royal Pine
I had been wanting to do a piece featuring Little Trees® for a long time until I finally arrived at the concept for Royal Pine. I was always fascinated by the cabs in New York that would have dozens of them stuffed into car pockets. The resulting medley of chemical scents was so overpowering and headache-inducing that I lost all sense of time and place. I can still smell them. My personal Phantom Potpourri, if you will.
I love the rounded silhouette of the trees and it actually took me three tries of free-handing the outline until it felt just right. I slowly built up the pine stump through the coil building process, to echo how a tree develops rings. Then, I carved out the bark in a semi-abstract pattern. The brown glaze ended up coming out better than I anticipated; I love how it interacts with the texture!
Those are my personal favorites of the batch and I’ll write about some of the other works in another post. Visit my page on Testudo in the mean time :) I’ve also been making lil ceramic charms for necklaces and earrings. Fossilized Peanut Necklaces and Cigarette Butt Earrings are now stocked on my webshop!
I’ve always loved wearable art, so these felt like a natural extension of my practice. They’re sculpted out of stoneware clay and attached to stainless steel hardware. I imagine them paired with time-worn tees, sturdy denim, striped sweaters, and maybe even a jaunty cap.
That’s all for now! I’m getting excited to share the large piece I’ve been working on over the past couple months.
Peace,
Paloma