Photos and reporting by Robert Kokenyesi, Ceramic Artist, Beachfront Pottery, Godfrey, IL, 62035, USA.  If you enjoyed this post, then give me a “like” on my Facebook page.      There is additional information about Beachfront Pottery on my web site.

The Venue

 

The “Essence of Form” multimedia exhibit was on display from November 16 through December 28, 2018 in the gallery of St Louis Artist’s Guild in Clayton, Missouri.

 

 

 

The Call for Entry

For this exhibition the St. Louis Artists’ Guild seeks artwork that detects the structure of the physical world both seen and unseen, imagined and observed. We are fascinated in how nature repeats itself with a diversity of forms from the micro to the macro. How do you capture this phenomena? This is an all-media exhibition looking for works of both abstraction and realism. We are particularly interested in how artists’ capture form from a well-timed photograph, to the manipulation of paint, drawing media, fabric and clay, or a mixture of all of them.

The Ceramic Art Pieces

 

In a video recording Debra describes her approach to sculpture making that she strives to create something that Mother Nature may have sculpted.  She believes that the most beautiful sculptures have been created by wind and water.  She shapes clay by slamming it onto a stone, and then using a stick to make the marks and to reshape the clay.

 

 

 

 

Casey writes on his web site ” I create sociopolitical works that question our relationship to gender roles/stereotypes and sexuality. Each of these works begins with a question to society and to myself. I create works that explore the ambiguity of materials, scale, and color, and employ repetition as a form of meditation. I am interested in material limitations, the gendering of materials and processes, and the debunking of craft vs. fine art. ”

 

 

On her web site Hannah writes “My work focuses on taking societal insecurities- the obscure, perceived ugliness, chaos- and transforming them into harmonized concepts through design and emotional substance.    I place much importance on visual elements, and find it necessary for my work to have interactive components; either in movement, or function, and may be physical or emotional.”

 

 

 

This the exhibit view of my piece in this exhibit.  The narrative of the “Ancient” series of pieces is that ocean-going animals, like sharks, manta rays, and whales have been living in the oceans for tens or hundreds of millions of years.  Such long time survival suggest that they mastered their environment.  The :Ancient” pieces explore what are the essential features that creates that survival.

 

 

 

 

Here is a better photo.