Aunt Anna's Jugs
Through this series of whimsical ceramic sculptures, I give physical weight to the memory of my late Aunt Anna, whose funny and charming social columns encapsulated the best of Ottawa Valley storytelling and her all-encompassing love for my uncle.
The Equity is a small newspaper serving the Pontiac region of Western Quebec, for which my Aunt Anna was a correspondent for many years. In her columns, she shared updates on the social life of her small community of Bryson. The very best of them featured hilarious stories about my Uncle Jim — a moose-hunting, maple-syrup making mayor who sometimes attracted bad luck. She wrote as she spoke, and reading her column was as close as you could get to sitting across from her at the kitchen table.
The Equity is a small newspaper serving the Pontiac region of Western Quebec, for which my Aunt Anna was a correspondent for many years. In her columns, she shared updates on the social life of her small community of Bryson. The very best of them featured hilarious stories about my Uncle Jim — a moose-hunting, maple-syrup making mayor who sometimes attracted bad luck. She wrote as she spoke, and reading her column was as close as you could get to sitting across from her at the kitchen table.
Aunt Anna's Jugs: Great Turnout at Valentine Euchre
|
|
|
|
The free-form shapes of these vessels are inspired by the contours of commercial maple syrup bottles. They are designed for fun over function, with impractical and inoperable handles and lids.
I applied a single-colour underglaze, painting it on and then wiping it off so that the colour seeped into the letters and textures of the pot. This technique, along with the selected typeface, evokes the black-and-white newspapers in which my aunt’s columns were featured.
In stamping each letter into clay, I am fixing my aunt’s life and spirit in place, giving her a permanence in the world she left behind. Like lipstick on a cheek, these works are physical evidence of my happy and deeply imprinted memories of her. I hope viewers hear in her words the echoed voices of their own lost family members and enjoy the humour my aunt embodied every day.
I applied a single-colour underglaze, painting it on and then wiping it off so that the colour seeped into the letters and textures of the pot. This technique, along with the selected typeface, evokes the black-and-white newspapers in which my aunt’s columns were featured.
In stamping each letter into clay, I am fixing my aunt’s life and spirit in place, giving her a permanence in the world she left behind. Like lipstick on a cheek, these works are physical evidence of my happy and deeply imprinted memories of her. I hope viewers hear in her words the echoed voices of their own lost family members and enjoy the humour my aunt embodied every day.
Aunt Anna's Jugs: It's Maple Syrup Time
|
|
|
|
