A Tree’s Spirit
Cedar T.
clay + underglaze + glaze
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I was inspired to make this work because I wanted to test my hand with making a trompe l’œil cup that would confuse the brain as to the medium it was made out of. I decided to go with wood because I grew up surrounded by trees that had features which were almost human, and it made it seem like when walking through the woods staring at the trees, the trees were looking back at me. This piece finally gave the tree a fully defined face that could look back. Although my process was a tad difficult when it came to making a bark texture for the exterior, I feel that I was successful in the end after I let go of my perfectionism. It was going to be messy, and that was going to be okay. The expression that is held in the face, and the way that the clear glaze turned out is probably what I am most happy with. The fact that the face is rather sad, and the clear glaze dripped over the outside makes it look like the face is crying, or that the "bark" is freshly covered in dew or fog from our beloved marine layer. The concept of the “tree” being wet is also reflected through the form being a cup, as while unusable for drinking, it can still hold water in a more metaphorical sense.
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Creativity, to me, means that there is a space and opportunity to express oneself in a way that people can choose their meaning or take away from it, and that meaning can be vastly different from what I was thinking about when making the piece. Creativity is always for everyone.
