new rug sculpture

(in progress)

sculptures and gravestones

My new series of sculptures is inspired by gravestone renderings of 
pillows and books. In the Victorian era, gravestones, through their shapes and carved embellishments, symbolized ideas about death that words could not convey. For Victorians, gravestones shaped like pillows were a symbol of eternal sleep. Closed books 
represented the fact that the story of this life is over and open books were used to record a short biography of the deceased.

I love the way that these tactile, familiar objects become hard and permanent markers, removed from the mortal world and placed in the realm of eternity. A tangible object becomes a connection to the intangible.

My sculptures are made from papier-mâché and, as with gravestones, the weight of the pillows and books is changed. Organic forms often move through the sculptures, reminding one of the grass, worms, or roots that pass through the ground beneath the stone.

rug sculpture

rug drawing

new sculpture...

untitled

spiral

work in progress

living/making

i love working at home (and i'm not just saying that because i can't afford a studio!) it can get really messy, but i love living with my sculptures and there are so many interesting art/life overlaps that occur. also, it really makes sense for my current body of work to be made in a home because of the themes i'm working with.

rope remake

a sculpture of a piece of rope; made from wire and fabric

necklace sculpture

i made this necklace sculpture as part of the interview process for a job doing store display at anthropologie (i got the job!). i really enjoyed making something that was purely decoration...

the beads are made from chicken wire and papier-mache covered in scraps of silk and lace

remakes

i'm beginning the slow process of remaking every object in my apartment.

new work

clay lace

i finished this project and i'm really happy with the way they turned out. they're incredibly delicate and fragile (the clay shrunk a lot before being fired).

the patterns are taken from the 17th century lace patterns in this post:

http://jessicapezalla.blogspot.com/2010/10/current-inspiration-2.html

WIP/studio view

i've been busy, busy, busy! some of it art, some of it decoration...

trying to turn clay into lace...

the tile is just a support during firing- hopefully it will survive in some form!

studio walls

I've been documenting the images that I hang on the wall and the objects that I collect in my studio for a few years... it's interesting to see them all together...

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

this morning