Photos and text by Robert Kokenyesi, Ceramic Artists, Beachfront Pottery, Godfrey, IL 62035, USA.

On Saturday, April 8, 2017 the St Louis Artists’ Guild hosted a fundraising event called “Celebrate”.  This event was organized by thirteen St Louis area female artists who form the group “Thirteen Squared”.  The only requirement for donations were to be about 8 inches by 8 inches in size, and that they hang on the wall.

The entire course of this fundraising sounds like something I have never heard or seen before.  The donated art pieces were on view in the gallery from April 4 to April 8.  Then on the evening of April 8, at 7 PM sharp a whistle was blown, and the buyers took their selected art works off the walls.  It would be great to have pictures of that moment; I wonder if there was some physical tug-of-war between buyers who wanted to buy the same art work.

I decided to donate two newly made pieces to this fundraiser.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are 8X8 inch ceramic tiles.  These two pieces represent further exploration of the “Dreaming” theme. The general motivation for this series is the Aborigine Dreamtime, which is the communication between the Dreamers of the Aborigine tribes, and the other members of the tribe.  The Dreamers draw their sacred dream into the soil, and when they are done telling about their sacred dreams, the Dreamers erase the drawing by poking into the soil with a stick.  This process of riddling the dream with holes, protected the sacred from harm or discovery.

When I started making ceramic pieces in the “Dreaming” series I intended to explore the sacred nature of ocean-living animals, and present those animals as the “protected ones”.  There is a stylistic similarity of dots/holes on an Aboriginal dream drawing and the clear circular glazed areas on my pieces.  So, that stylistic similarity is the beginning of my narrative.  The narrative of these pieces in the Dreaming series are meant to start a conversation between the viewer and the piece about the importance, the appreciation, the sacredness of our animal treasures from the oceans.