Clay Body Ceramic Invitational

The Clay Body Ceramic Invitational was located in the Student Union’s Hugh McPeck gallery. The display was open from Jan. 18 to Feb. 6, and featured a variety of ceramic pieces created by members of UAA’s student ceramics club, the Clay Body.

A star piece in the show, featured on the promotional poster, was created by Taylor Lee and titled “You Will Never Come Clean.” The piece is very personal in nature, and evokes deep emotions with its beautifully crafted imagery. It features a praying mantis, curled on its side, with the twisted form of a horsehair worm emerging from its abdomen. Lee used a drippy green glaze that evoked a sickly feeling.

The sculpture represents feelings Lee experienced in the aftermath of sexual assault. Lee wrote in an email, “I have been working out how to represent sexual violence in my work without it being overly grotesque/uncomfortable for me to make. I have found that using parasitism as a symbol for it gets across that idea without having to depict it literally. This was the first time that I was successful working with this idea in a piece and I cannot be more proud of how it turned out. It was very empowering for me to make that pain physical in a healthy, thoughtful way.” 

Horsehair worms are parasitic animals that grow inside insects after they unknowingly consume the worm eggs. Once mature inside the insect, “it will influence the host, driving it towards a water source before erupting from the host's body, and slithering away to find a mate and start the cycle all over again. The host insects often drown during this process. I felt that this mirrored the way I felt after my assault where I would bathe for hours trying to make myself feel less unclean,” wrote Lee. 

“Growing up as a queer person and a survivor of sexual trauma often made me feel alienated from my peers and treated as something inhuman. I find that I can express those feelings best through creatures that are misunderstood and insects provide me with a blank canvas in which to project those feelings onto” wrote Lee. “I think we as artists have the capacity to show trust in our work, whether it is truths about ourselves or the world around us. We can share perspectives and ideas in an instant in a way writing and other forms of communication sometimes fail to!”

Many artists used this invitational as an opportunity to share vulnerable and meaningful artwork like Lee. Avery Krompacky, another member of the Clay Body, displayed a white and blue vase-like piece, named “Confluence.” Krompacky used a cobalt wash and blue underglaze to create bold but also hazy imagery on the surface of the vessel.

Krompacky wrote in an artist statement that the two sides of the vase represent the two sides of their childhood. “On one side, my mother, brothers, and I bask in sunshine and art, homeschooled and free to make jam together between lessons. This is the childhood that my mother, an artist, created for us.” 

“On the other side, however, my family is bound together by a marriage that was doomed to end, carrying the weight of generational trauma. Surrounded by guns, oil, sinister belts, and pain, my family is represented by the image of a pendant my mother used to wear — a family as a harmonious entwinement of shining gold, aptly painted with shades of blue instead. This is the childhood that my father sentenced us to with the lash of his belt and swing of his fist.” 

Many of the pieces in the show are vessel forms – such as vases – like the one Krompacky created. One stunning example of artistry in this show was Megan Hughes’ pieces –  small, lidded containers shaped like birds. Aptly titled “Feathered Company,” the four pieces feature meticulously detailed feathers covering the birds, and natural coloring. Another example are the two “Bento Boxes” created by Justin Fulkerson. These cylindrical vessels have fish-scale like textures along their sides and beautiful natural and rusty-looking colors. These pieces are reduction fired stoneware, while Hughes’ bird pieces are soda fired porcelain. 

Many more pieces were featured in the show, with a wide variety of themes, subjects and mediums. Photos of many of these pieces can be seen on the Clay Body’s Facebook page, UAA Clay Body. The Clay Body will be having a pop-up mug sale on Feb. 22 from 8-5 p.m. near the Kaladi Brothers in the Social Sciences Building.