Magic MYTH AND MUD

Alchemy, a medieval chemistry philosophy, is seen as a magical process of transformation, creation, or combination. I view my work as an alchemist with an artistic perspective, blending ingredients in the glaze lab, shaping vessels from raw earth, and creating glazes from cicada ashes—my art merges ceramics, science, and illustration.

This body of work builds upon my love of art history and I’m drawing inspiration from historical ritual and magical objects. I decided to narrow my focus on ancient Greece/Rome, ancient Egypt, and ancient Norse/Anglo-Saxon art. I took inspiration from the shapes that were common in pottery for these cultures, what purposes they had for pottery, how they decorated the pottery, etc. I chose these areas as a way to pay homage to my faith as a pagan and wanted to include a code I use in my religious practice.

The code has a corresponding symbol for each letter in the English alphabet and has a key that could be used to decipher it. This coded text reveals aspects about the gods, surrounding mythology, and even some secret messages I've woven in, and also references ancient writing like runes and hieroglyphics on historical pottery.

An idea I had for this show, is creating a ceramic wind chime and several bells that audience members can activate as a sound cleansing of the space, allowing their participation in the ritual. By allowing viewers to interact with the pieces they are immersed into my magical world, showing them that magic is everywhere and anyone can tap into it.