Electronic Thesis/Dissertation
 

Motherhood and Clay

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I make offerings to the past and future generations of women in my family. My great-grandmother, and those who came before her, worked every day to perform acts of care, service, and protection. My work preserves memories and labor of motherhood through the care-work of transforming clay to ceramics. To ensure my sculptures’ survival, while building them, I mend cracks to maintain their slow drying process before the ritual of transformation from clay to ceramics begins in the kiln. That process of heating clay to extreme temperatures to create its sturdy form is akin to my recent experience of carrying and forming life in my womb. The work of motherhood easily fades into the distance with each passing generation. I am interested in elevating the voices of mothers. My work seeks to honor and become an offering to not only generations of mothers within my own family, but to mothers everywhere.

My ceramic practice investigates matriarchal lineage

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