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Words and Clay

A solo exhibition February 1-28, 2022

at

Muddy Waters Clay Center

2014 13th Ave. N

Grand Forks, ND 58203

Artist's Statement

 

… is a reflection on and celebration of having lived and living, with references to childhood and the various life stages one experiences. It is a nod to how language shapes my life, and what I hope to be an intriguing interplay between language and art.

 

While the female sculptures here enact a concept, some of the functional pottery literally has words written into the clay.

 

Since I’m a retired English teacher turned ceramics dabbler, I have always thought work with words or clay seems ironically similar—both flexible, creative, moveable. Even after words are printed, and clay fired and fixed—both are still open to a host of “readings.”

 

The processes of writing and creating with clay also seem parallel to me, since both are about thinking, drafting, developing, revising and editing. Importantly, it’s discovery as I work— that mind/hand collaboration—writing or shaping, looking back and forward simultaneously.

 

My clay work is concept driven, word-connected, and also highly influenced by the world/culture in which we are immersed. My sculptures of women have always and continue to represent females situated in and navigating a complex world. Several of the pieces here represent many different life stages, and since they were created in the past two years—a time of isolation and worry, responses to present goings on can be apparent. 

 

Quirky, strange, eclectic, whimsical— language is what we have to describe, interpret, understand. Can clay function in those ways too?

Mary Bauer

2022

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A bit of info about my work

I tend to work in series---usually three related pieces, and sometimes more---under a specific overall title, with their own subtitles, within that broader title. There are also pieces that are not chategorized within a specific series or perhaps fit several.

For this exhibition there are six main series:

  • The Grandmothers all work

    • This series began in the summer of 2020, with the idea that the pandemic situation was improving, but as fall approached things got worse. And as things got worse, the grandmothers, who had begun as a practice in creating 19th century immigrant women and “The readers”—who were grandmothers as children (early 20th century school girls), the last three pieces became more experimental and less hopeful, resulting in “Not enough magic,” “When wings become wooden,” and “solace.”

  • Chaos in one's mind can feel so heavy, could you lift it off like some onerous crown? 

    • In the late summer of 2020, as I (wrongly) began to think covid-related things were winding down…and having created some series of Warrior Women a few years ago,  I sought to imagine and create what I thought a current warrior woman would look like today. But that fall came rising numbers of covid cases and things looked worse again…and I think that, rather than a new age warrior woman, what came instead was heavy-headed helmeted women. 

 

  • Dear Children

    • Having spent many hours, with my photographer husband, sleuthing woodlands and prairies for antlered deer…I came to understand that (except in rare cases) the only antlered deer are males—stags—except for in the case of reindeer, where females also have antlers. I imagined creating female sculptures with antlers and found that it’s not all that unusual in the art world to find female figurative representations with antlers. So I began to ponder, why might a female want to be antlered? I began a small series of antlered girls, under the larger title of “Dear children,” playing on the words Deer/dear. If uttered, which do you hear? Does it depend on what you are seeing? “She said, ‘Pray, (not prey)” was the first created in that series, followed by "Family tree: don't lock horns over small things," and "Dear in the headlights."​

  • I am a noun and a verb, and sometimes an adjective

    • As I continued to work on the series “Dear children,” with the idea of girls with antlers, I created three larger pieces with actual deer antlers. As I worked on each piece, with their more distinct faces, these words kept coming to mind, which resulted in their titles— wish, promise and treasure.  Do they desire a wish, promise, or treasure?  Or, to be one? Are they subjects or objects, or actions? Are they parts of something else, such as wishing well, promise ring, or treasure chest? Is labeling suggestive, manipulative, reductive? (would it make a girl want to be antlered?)

  • So many Alices; so much wonder...
    • young girls here----O star, when she was younger, the hiding place with her books...and the whimsical animals. Here again, there seems to be more hope, or is it a turn to fantasy...

  • Story jars
    • While the sculptures tend to enact an idea, the story jars have words literally written in clay…some are excerpts from old favorites—songs or poems. .  (although sometimes a jar is just a jar, a vase just a vase, a mug just a mug…)​

mugs and thought pots
two ducks and ivory jars
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Almost all pieces in this exhibition were created in 2020 and 2021, with a few pieces made in 2019. One can find more details about each piece in the slider galleries for 2020 and 2021.

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