This exhibition is transitional. I am somewhere between 2 different ways of practicing, showing pieces that are one-of-a-kind, and hand built, and pieces made using my moulds. The exhibition is at the Port Moody Arts Centre.
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The Port Moody City Gallery just before set up. It was a beautiful autumn day. -
Gabriella Solti, left, our Hungarian curator, which seems so apt, with Marcia Pitch, afternoon of setup. -
Gabriella assisitng Marcia set up a hanging piece. -
Gabriella watching Marcia stuff the cubboard with toys. A favourite piece with the guests. -
Marcia and I on opening night. -
Press moulded, taken from a piece I made at the ICS. Thsi was just finished days before the show,. Becasue they were press moulds I could manipulate their heads and epression. -
Showing the scale of Baby Girls -
Golden Boy by the window. -
Golden Boy under the lights. The surface affects from the salt wood firing are so variable under different ligjhts. -
Bed of Roses and Yellow Doll with Marcia's soft toys. Yellow Doll has a fright-wig. She is one of the press moulds. -
Marcia's nifty wall piece on West wall. -
Mood shot. The Herend porcelain babies are now on glass squares. -
Over-view of the babies on glass. I like the idea of an open / changeable arrangement.
Debra spotted Marcia’s wild red shoes on the first day of their childrens’ preschool. They have remained friends ever since. As artists they recognized a similar undercurrent in their distinctly different art practices.
This exhibition dwells on the shadowed side of childhood, and the impetus is experience and memory. These constructions, disquieting and humorous, come out of the artists’ own experience, and are accelerated by witnessing their children’s.
Sometimes there is no peace in the dark. The nursery is not always a refuge at midnight.
Debra’s Statement:
The nursery is a metaphor for the realm of childhood.
We hope that the nursery is a safe and good place but we remember that it is also where fear, sorrow and conflict occur.
My babies are a metaphor for us, and the infant within each of us that marks our beginning and remains with us till our end. Childhood is a precarious place, and ceramics and childhood both exist in a state of fragility.
Coming Home, summer of 2010
After traveling for a month…see Mary’s blog, www.marydaniel.ca/blog where we shared the Istanbul experience, Terry and I arrived home to the arms of hungry children, under-walked dogs, an overgrown garden, and my studio in severe need of repair. However, how lucky I have been – to experience the residency and travel, and then return to a welcoming home. It was a busy summer.
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Home at last with the kids! They couldn't wait for Terry's cooking. -
The whole yard was a jungle from the heavy rains this spring. -
Terry removed the gyprock while I was at the ICS, showing the rotted roof. Repair started 5 days after we got home. -
The contents of my whole studio under wraps in the back yard. Truck loads went to the city dump. -
Work in progress, roof replaced and cieling reparied, new skylights and window...More light! -
This is what my old studio looked like - 28 years of accumulated stuff...dark and cluttered! -
New work station...for plaster, and old work is now stored. -
No more rain on my head. -
Washed the windows for the first time in 28 years. -
Margaret came up to Nanaimo in July to open her show at the University. Mary and I went to the Opening. -
Margaret shipped her work from the ICS, combining it with work she has made at the Vancouver Island University. -
Mary checking out a gas kiln in Seattle. we are considering sharing a kiln. -
The Herend porcelain babies.....tried plexiglass, ick! This is plate glass. but in the end, did not like confining them onto one square. -
Some of the new cast and press moulds I have made since coming home. -
Still working with the baby image,-changing its posture. Variations on a theme. Trying out different clays. -
A another way of using press moulds -Splitting -front and back. Just getting started. Most of this will not be ready for the exhibit.
