Exhibited in the national exhibit “Art in Clay III: Origins”, curated by Dr. Judith Schwartz

There is a lot going on here. Viewers may initially wonder, “What is that?” “What’s going on here?”To me, this piece is as much about being able to see and not being able to see, as it is about states of becoming and formative emergence.  The biomorphic form, to the extent that it is revealed, very strongly suggests a life form. Its red-black form may appear disturbing to some and beautiful to others. Encasement in glass and surrounded by a pure white receiving blanket provides multiple references from specimen collection to keepsake boxes. The repeated digital images from an abdominal sagittal section CT scan alludes to banding tattoos, patterned border decorations of children’s rooms, and information gleaned from medical imaging.

Introduction of the sequenced and, at times layered, CT scans also makes reference to supposed transparency and a false sense of security provided by information derived from medical imaging. Do recorded images catch everything? Are things really what they seem?  Has our vision been occluded?  Are we looking at things the right way?
The reality is that things shift in meaning as you look at them differently and in relationship with one another. There is a great deal of visual movement and tension created between the formal elements of the hard yet transparent plate glass; the shiny ceramic element with its curves, enclosures, suggested vertebrae and emerging “hands”; the clinical high-tech images, and the soft plush baby blanket. A harmonious cohesion transcends these tensions, allowing the unstated question, “What type of life form is it anyway?” to arise.

This suggests there are potential things, whether real or imagined, lying within our creative selves and our physical bodies waiting to come to life.