"Her Things Should Keep Her Marks"

Earthenware, Layered Acrylic, Resin, Wood Stain, and Polyurethane

This work is a desire to document the body.  A desperate effort to create a memory within form, touch, and material.
 
Clay as material is malleable and easily manipulated. With slow and precise steps, I coiled and pinched the red earthenware clay into a hollow, pillow like form. Immediately after building the voluminous body of clay, I hugged each
pillow while still soft. The clay forms adhered to my body and reflect the shapes of my arms embracing and my hands gripping, as I gently applied pressure to hold close and shape each pillow.
 
Objects that keep our marks. Our bodies that reflect memory. Our surfaces that depict use and time.

Ceramic pieces with projection of images. ( framed pillow created by artist Kevin Mahoney http://cargocollective.com/kevinmahoney )

Things Shouldn't Be So Hard
by Kay Ryan
 
A life should leave
deep tracks:
ruts where she
went out and back
to get the mail
or move the hose
around the yard;
where she used to
stand before the sink,
a worn-out place;
beneath her hand
the china knobs
rubbed down to
white pastilles;
the switch she
used to feel for
in the dark
almost erased.
Her things should
keep her marks.
The passage
of a life should show;
it should abrade.
And when life stops,
a certain space--
however small--
should be left scarred
by the grand and
damaging parade.
Things shouldn't
be so hard.