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Alchemical Vessels 115 Artists Explore The Night Journey
2017
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© 2017 Joan Hisaoka Healing Ar ts Gallery at Smith Center for Healing and the Ar ts ISBN: 978-0-9894094-3-8
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Dedicated to Rober t Hisaoka
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Gallery Founded in 2008, the Joan Hisaoka Healing Ar ts Galler y at Smith Center for Healing and the Ar ts, is a 20 year old nonprofit ar ts space in Washington, D.C. dedicated to exhibiting fine ar t that explores the innate connection between healing and creativity. Ar t can mend social, psychological, and physical ills by building community, inspiring change, and celebrating life. A rotating exhibition schedule features contemporary, international and national ar tists addressing a diversity of significant themes, such as spirituality, social change, multiculturalism, health, environmentalism, and community. To learn more visit, smithcenter.org/gallery
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Mission Smith Center for Healing and the Ar ts is a nonprofit health, education, and ar ts organization with a mission to develop and promote healing practices that explore physical, emotional, and mental resources that lead to life-affirming changes for people affected by cancer. Our work is based on a single profound idea – everyone harbors the innate ability to heal even in the face of life’s most serious challenges, and that ability to heal is enhanced by holistic approaches that include the healing power of the ar ts. We offer empowering programs and activities for adult survivors and caregivers, as well as suppor t and creative resources for the community at large through our Integrative Patient Navigation Services; Weeklong and One-Day Cancer Retreats; Ar tist-In-Residence Program; exhibitions and lectures in the Joan Hisaoka Healing Ar ts Gallery; Community Resource Center ; and ongoing programs, classes and workshops at our U Street facility.
Contact Smith Center for Healing and the Ar ts 1632 U Street, NW Washington, DC 20009 www.smithcenter.org 202.483.8600
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Introduction by Shanti Norris
“Ar tists are like spies and explorers entering enemy territory or undiscovered lands. They leave coded signs, touchstones, sculpted shapes that describe both the direction and the contours of the journey.” -Mark Patrick Hederman, in Kissing the Dark
process - can occur. Gifted healer, Lucia Mercer talked about the innate intuitive process and guided everyone in a shor t shamanic journey. Each ar tist was asked to create a piece about a time that they had engaged a hard challenge and feel that they were changed by it.
The theme of Alchemical Vessels 5 is the Night Journey. As we have done each year, since 2013, we invite 20 curators in the Washington, DC area to each invite 5 gifted local ar tists to make a vessel for the exhibition. Gallery Director, Spencer Dormitzer and I also select additional ar tists to par ticipate. This year, 115 ar tists accepted the challenge.
The Night Journey
For the first three years of the exhibition we gave each ar tist a clay bowl to work with. The four th year, we gave ar tists a clean wooden box that opened and closed. This year we asked ar tists to create their own vessels, using any materials, but utilizing a circular shapes and within the size limit of 14 inches by 14 inches. As always we began with an experiential session for ar tists to present the theme of the exhibition. This year we talked about alchemy and the role of the vessel as a necessary container in which the transformative alchemical process – the healing
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The journey of healing is a path through darkness. Almost every culture has a mythological story about traveling into the lower realm, going into the darkness, fighting with, engaging with, and sometimes even marrying the forces found in that murky realm. The tales of Persephone, Orpheus, Jesus in the deser t, and the Dark Night of the Soul are examples. It is a journey universal and one that each of us makes at some point in our own lives. Every man and woman, every person has to under take an archaeological investigation, which will open up the world beneath us. We must acknowledge the darkness, which is an essential par t of our being human. One of our tasks is to acknowledge, accept and engage the darkness that is an integral par t of who we are as human beings.
When faced with illness, trauma, or loss we are thrown into that darkness. What does it mean to confront the unknown? How do we face our fears, our suffering and the suffering of others? How do we look at the possibility of our own dissolution? What is required of us on this path? What is most helpful and what do we jettison in order to get through? What is it that allows us to survive and to return? This is the eternal return - the daily ritual of light through darkness and back to light. This is the journey into our deeper selves, into our own unconscious where we often find hidden treasure. But we never come back the same as we were. If we are for tunate we come back a little stronger and wiser than before. If we are for tunate we return with light. This is the story of the wounded healer. This is the Night Journey.
Thank you to the curators for a brilliant job. Thank you to Spencer Dormitzer, Deirdre Darden and Emily Fussner. Thank you to our indomitable committee Ellyn Weiss, Helen Frederick, Janice Marks, Dolly Vehlow, and Tim Fleschner. Thank you to the DC Commission on the Ar ts and Humanities for suppor ting this project. And thank you to our sponsors; Jackson Family Wines, City First Bank, American Airlines and the Larry Paul Foundation. Thank you to each of the ar tists who donated their piece to benefit our work with cancer survivors. Words fail. Shanti Norris Smith Center Co-Founder and Executive Director Founder, The Joan Hisaoka Healing Ar ts Gallery
As you will see, many of the pieces in the exhibit are deeply personal explorations of loss and healing. Indeed markers on the way of this all-to-human journey through the dark and back into the light. Thank you to the remarkable ar tists who did the deep dive and shared their intimate personal visions.
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Do I Use All My Fears? by Sarah Browning
The 19th century poet and activist Muriel Rukeyser wrote in her “Double Ode,” “Do I use all my fears?” The Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca called it duende, the impor tance of risk and daring to one’s craft. He wrote of how much vitality, ironically, a heightened awareness of death can bring to ar t. There is no doubt the ar tists used their fears in crafting this year’s Alchemical Vessels. In so many we find the single human form – in solitude? In loneliness? Both states form the human condition; both form these works of ar t. From Nahid Navab’s lonely figure against a deep blue of night to Ana U. Davis’ bent (or curled?) woman in stark black and white, the works ask us to consider our bodies as vessels for difficulty, as containers for complexity. Night and day wrestle in all the pieces, the abstract as well as the figurative. For indeed, the journey to day, to healing, can only be through the night, through the shadow that lives over our lives. The ar tists show us, too, the infinite variety of approaches we can take to journey through these shadows: there are mazes and engines and ships; bindings and unbindings; mirrors and shatterings and spillage and growth. Even, in fact, garden tools! No matter your own difficulty and no matter your own strategies for navigating your difficulties, you will find alchemy here, embodied pathways through shadow.
During the Q&A at the end of a reading the poet Sonia Sanchez gave a number of years ago, a young man rises from his seat at the back of the hall and asks where the poems come from, if their origin is pain. This revolutionary poet, Sister Sonia Sanchez – tired, having struggled against the weather to arrive there – answers, No, my dear brother. It may start as pain, but the true emotion is love. Love is the true emotion, my dear brother – Sonia comes alive on the stage, her eyes shine, she calls the young people to believe. The young man nods as Sonia says it: We write to learn how to walk as humans. So, too, this year’s stunning group of ar tists, who teach us, with their own wrestling, love, how to walk as humans. Sarah Browning Co-Founder/Executive Director of Split This Rock Author of Killing Summer (for thcoming, Fall 2017) Split This Rock is a DC-based national organization that cultivates, teaches, and celebrates poetr y that bears witness to injustice and provokes personal and social change. www.SplitThisRock.org
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Alchemical Vessels 2017 Curators KUNJ, Performance Ar tist JOHN ADAMS, Visual Ar tist JOAN BELMAR, Visual Ar tist ADAH ROSE BITTERBAUM, Owner and Director of the Adah Rose Gallery, Curator JIM DORAN, Visual Ar tist NEKISHA DURRETT, Curator, Ar tist TIM FLESCHNER, Co-Founder at Eone HELEN FREDERICK, Visual Ar tist JUDITH HEARTSONG, Curator and Founder/Owner, Ar tists & Makers Studios 1 and 2 PHIL HUTINET, Publisher East City Ar t JESSICA KALLISTA, Visual Ar tist, Owner Olly Olly GLORIA NAUDEN, Ar t Patron HENRY THAGGERT, Ar t Patron DOLLY VEHLOW, Gallery O on H Principal/Gallery Director ZOMA WALLACE, Curator & Ar t Bank Coordinator for the DC Commission on the Ar ts and Humanities ELLYN WEISS, Visual Ar tist and Independent Curator NIKKI BRUGNOLI, Visual Ar tist and Curator SMITH CENTER FOR HEALING AND THE ARTS
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Alchemical Vessels 2017 Artists Lina Alattar Jennifer Anderson Kasse Andrews-Weller Sondra Arkin Rushern Baker IV Julia Mae Bancroft Marilyn Banner Joan Belmar Michael Booker Lennox Campello Sally Canzoneri Elana Casey Mei Mei Chang Hsin-Hsi Chen Schroeder Cherry Vasundhara (Vachu) Chilakamarri Travis Childers Mara Clawson Irene Clouthier Ellen Cornett Lama Dajani Brian Dailey Richard Dana Delna Dastur Ana U Davis Rachel Debuque Rex Delafkaran Nehemiah Dixon III Jim Doran Spencer Dormitzer Sarah Eargle Mary Early Cheryl Edwards Lauren Emeritz Heloisa Escudero Lisa Farrell Gregory Ferrand Mary Freedman Emily Fussner
Ric Garcia Mark Garrett Janis Goodman Stefan Greene Matthew Grimes Adam Hager Mia Halton Mansoora Hassan Caroline Hatfield Sean Hennessey Jeffery Herrity Leslie Holt Jackie Hoysted Aaron Hughes (with Ehren Tool) Melissa Ichiuji Mar ty Ittner Charles Jean Pierre Wayson Jones Jessica Kallista Sally Kauffman Don Kimes JT Kirkland Micheline Klagsbrun Catherine Kleeman Regan Lake KeyHan Lee Kyujin Lee Freda Lee-McCann Liz Lescault Erin Lisette Nathan Loda Steve Loya Tsedaye Makonnen Jenee Mateer Carolina Mayorga David Morgenstein Olivia Morrow Kristine Moss Minna Newman Nathanson
Nahid Navab Nasrin Navab Thien Nguyen Shanti Norris Sarah O’Donoghue Anthony Palliparambil, Jr. John Paradiso Nara Park Judith Peck Lyric Prince Susana Raab Carol Reed Mojdeh Rezaeipour Jamea Richmond Edwards Lisa Rosenstein Jac Rust Nancy Sausser Gretchen Schermerhorn Alma Selimovic Samantha Sethi (with Andy Holtin) Alexandra Sherman Ellen Sinel Anne C Smith Susan Stacks Hillary Steel Dafna Steinberg Anneliese Sullivan Lisa Marie Thalhamer Mars Tokyo Patricia Underwood Andrea Uravitch Jenny Walton Leslie Weinberger Ellyn Weiss Mary Welch Higgins Josh Whipkey Helen Zughaib
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Lina Alattar Crossing the Threshold Mixed Media I learned early on how to take shattered pieces and make them whole again. Born in Iraq and having lived under an oppressive regime; fear, depor tations, and death were an everyday reality. What followed was a life interrupted, a life recreated, and ultimately a life transformed. My early childhood experiences colored everything. What emerged were years of personal and spiritual growth, where meditation and ar t-making were my modes for healing. These two pillars helped me to rewrite the story and discover an anchor that rests in each one of us. My daily practice of Transcendental Meditation has taught me that my experience has been my greatest teacher, because it has illuminated what is fragile, transcended the momentary, and enriched my journey.
Jennifer D. Anderson Amended Flotsam Hand printed relief print on Epson Ultrachrome inks mounted onto gesso board There is something about me that makes me wonder about the imperceptible quality of stars in the noonday sun, what forces hold clouds up in the sky, and what arranges the sundry of the universe. This work is about the relationship of these and many other unknown things and a faith in their existence that is strong enough to try to visualize and recreate them. It is about working towards understanding in both a tangible physical way and a subtler spiritual one. Through a progressive buildup of graphite or manual printing relief blocks, my hand asser ts itself over photographs I have taken of the sky over my Southwestern Virginia home. The process is, to me, a loving process of focused attention and deliberate mark making as well as a meditative means of creating that reflects my visceral energies into the finished work through many hours of prolonged touch. The work then contains within it an intersection of humanity and nature, as well as a vast sense of intrinsic history.
Kasse Andrews-Weller Quilt The Night Journey Spin Mixed Media Handmade quilts have been accompanying me in my life and night journeys since my bir th. They serve as my vessel, as they wrap and surround in their comfor ting warmth. Quilts have always grounded me with their tangible familiarity. They tear, fray, lose their down, deteriorate into shreds, get patched or appliqued but are still cherished. Through all of these stages, they still harbor all the dreams and nightmares, forgiveness and prayers, plans and disappointments, pain and health, tears and joy, bir th and death as they are transpor ted with me on my night journey. To determine where fate will take you on your night journey, spin.
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Sondra N. Arkin At the Heart of the Matter steel and copper Our journey on this planet is full of twists and turns, connections made and lost, trails leading somewhere definitive or places unknown. So much of it is just the journey. So much of it is unknown. So much of it we take on faith. So much of it we take in darkness. From the reality we create, and at the hear t of it all, we cherish a small flame we keep lit with the smallest whisper of breath. We return to this small flame repeatedly. This flicker fires our spirit. At The Heart of the Matter weaves all of the points that make body and spirit tangible, one connection after the other, systems that comes together to make a whole. In the density of tangles we see both light and darkness, a sense of ourselves, an impression of community, the knowledge that the whole is greater than the individual.
Rushern Baker IV “Untitled (Moon)” acrylic, resin, and paper on aluminum Rush Baker’s practice draws inspiration from the history of geometric abstraction and utilizes complex compositional juxtapositions as a mode of engaging with the viewer. Additional points of reference include the writings of Octavia Butler, Black abstraction, the New York School, and Soviet Constructivism. These myriad ideas shape Baker’s studio practice, characterized by a sense of lawlessness similar to that of the subjects that fascinate him. His paintings mix traditional media with building materials in complex compositions that evoke landscapes that refer back to the urban and suburban environment.
Julia Bancroft Untitled Vessel dried lavender roots woven in various silk and linen fibers Born and raised in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, Julia Mae Bancroft grew up deeply inspired by nature. In 2009 she moved to Washington DC where she attended The Corcoran College of Ar t + Design, graduating with a Bachelor’s of Fine Ar ts in 2013. Spending a semester abroad living in London England Bancroft first explored interests in fashion design at the Central Saint Mar tins College of Ar t + Design. It was here that she began consistently incorporating hand-stitching into ar twork, incredibly moved by the one-of-a-kind practice of couture embroidery. The discovery of this medium in combination with Bancroft’s background in darkroom photography and painting melded into her current mixed media practice.
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Marilyn Banner Owning the Dark Side wood, latex, bones, other mixed media The hard challenge I under took was to seek out, find, and integrate the lost and forgotten par ts of myself. It seemed the only way to become a whole person, and I have been at it for decades. On this journey I have had to face, feel, and integrate the painful humiliation, fear and anxiety that were so pervasive in my family of poor postwar Jews. I have had to realize their despair and hopelessness and transform it into strength and hope. I have used many tools in my search, including ar t. Owning the Dark Side references the flesh and bones of my family, my ancestors, and all of us. The child has a light spirit, and under her foot is a crystal. But mostly she is surrounded by darkness, by a sense of death, loss, and pover ty. The black sequins hint at female sexuality. Under one piece is hidden a yellow Star of David. The small red coins are “mils”, the sales tax coins saved and used by my mother when I was young. Each one was wor th 1/10 of a cent.
Joan Belmar Esperanza Acrylic and ink on paper Some nights are like a journey. Some of them are dark and seem endless. Others are surrounded with a whimsical light as the promise of a new day. As Neruda said: «La noche está estrellada, y tiritan, azules, los astros, a lo lejos.»
Michael Booker Talisman I Ink on Paper. Name: Talisman I. Origin: Unknown. A coin-sized protective ar tifact travelers carried with them on their path. Hidden in the talisman are Nsibidi symbols for mirror/reflection, prevent danger, journey, and love. It is believed that rubbing the ar tifact between your fingers would help ward off evil spirits.
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Elana Casey Before Libation There is Prayer Mixed media and Found Object My ar twork is an extension of my spiritual development and healing. My practice envisions people of African descent as spiritual vessels, entities, and workers. While in the process creating my work, my overarching question is, “How do we heal?” Many of my themes include godliness, West African cosmology, self-preservation, and personal history. Text greatly informs the work ranging from black feminist theory to the spiritual meanings of herbs and crystals. I associate scale with varying degrees of power and visibility. Gold, yellow ochre, white, and black are prominent colors in my work. I believe these colors reflective of the aesthetics in religious iconography, social identity and balance. The narratives I construct primarily center the woman’s role in their personal rituals and different physical and spiritual spaces. Through the use of portraiture and created mixed media objects, I seek to articulate the different ways we sustain our spiritual power and exemplify it.
Lennox Campello Untitled Charcoal A year ago I was faced with the shocking news that I had tested positive for prostate cancer. During one of the multiple pokes, biopsies, meetings with doctors, nurses, and deciding between chemo or the knife, I commented to one of the nurses that no one in my family had ever been diagnosed with cancer. “Lucky you,” she commented. Her words, perhaps a bit jaded from years of dealing with cancerous patients, stuck with me for a long time. I eventually decided for robotic assisted surgery, and my surgery was directed and done by a genial Mexican-born doctor who has loads of experience in this area. Surgery, especially the robot assisted surgery which eliminates surgeon’s tremors, also has a decent chance that after recovery you’ll be able to still get your crank up. A year later, I am still recovering, but cancer free, and have realized that I was indeed lucky. Not because the deadly breath of cancer reached me, but because I was lucky enough to live in a time and place where everything was there in place to save me. As the Washington Post once noted, I’ve been a Fridaphile since age 17. And the horrific story of Kahlo’s accident, early in her youth, where the bus where she was riding was struck by a train, resulting in multiple injuries to the young ar tist, including being impaled through the crotch on a hand-rail, came to mind as I recovered. “I lost my virginity to a train,” Kahlo used to joke about the accident. She survived her ordeal, and then spent a lifetime in pain, but moved on forward to become one of the most creative and iconic ar tists of all time. Her fire came from the darkness and pain and suffering that was her daily life. I’m immensely lucky in comparison... Gracias Frida! Alchemical Vessels 17
Sally Canzoneri Nevertheless, We Persist Mixed Media In thinking about this project, I tried to focus on a personal challenge from my own past. However, I kept finding that the crisis presently facing our country constantly intruding on my thoughts. The time since the US election has been difficult; and the future looks pretty bleak. Ultimately, I chose to make this piece about that. I feel that my country has entered a very dark period. We have a president caught up in a bleak dystopian vision of life in America, and Congressional leadership who seem bent on destroying programs that help the vulnerable and brighten all lives. Daily news repor ts are appalling -- and baffling too. I just can’t understand how anyone could be so determined to take ar t, health insurance, clean water, and so many other things away from millions of people. The drive to depor t million of immigrants seems so senselessly cruel. And what one scholar called “incompetent malevolence” seems to pervade the Trump White House. I am old enough to have come of age during the era of the Vietnam war, but I’ve never felt so worried for my country as now. Often, I feel as if we are caught in a dark maze full of fun house mirrors, with no idea of the way out. The one source of light and hope I’ve found is the Women’s March and other demonstrations. I went to par ticipate and to record. I found great cheer, warmth, tolerance, and commitment to the ideas that always made me proud of my country. If we are to remain a country of laws and a civil society, it will be because we stay true to those ideas. One of the hallmarks of these demonstrations are the many homemade signs -- and the colors. Even on dreary winter days, there are bright colors -- of jackets, backpacks, flags, signs and, of course, hats. Those bright colors, along with bright, enthusiastic faces showed up over and over in my pictures of the demonstrations. For this piece, I took patches of color from my photos to create patterned papers. I folded these papers into a sculpture. Think of it as a star, a flower, or a gathering of wings from the “better angels of our nature.” I made the bottom of the bowl in which the sculpture sits from reflective paper, so that the hopes and ideas in the sculpture will be reflected out of the bowl -- hopefully, to spread far and wide.
Schroeder Cherry Angel Vessel #45. Mixed Media Angel Vessels represent spiritual guides. They are the ones to call on when you are in The Thick of It. “Kick Ass Angels” are most effective, because they have seen some things.
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Hsin-Hsi Chen Cusp pencil, acrylic paint, gesso, foam board, wood to and fro up and down full and bit light and dark dreams onward in the endless nights
Mei.mei Chang Embroidery 王之涣 《登鹳雀楼》 白日依山尽， 黄河入海流。 欲穷千里目， 更上一层楼。 On The Stork Tower By Wang Zhihuan The sun beyond the mountains glows; The Yellow River seawards flows. You can enjoy a grander sight, By climbing to a greater height This poem was written by famous Tang Dynasty poet Wang Zhihuan. It describes what the poet sees and feels about when he ascends the Stork Tower. In the first two lines, he shifts his eyes from the sunset beyond the mountains to the Yellow River, which flows out of sight eastwards towards the sea. Then he writes the famous line “You can enjoy a grander sight, By climbing to a greater height.” which blends landscape, emotion and philosophical thinking in the shor t verse.
Vachu Chilakamarri Candle my dark night Drawing I had a dream prior to my cancer diagnosis. I was in pain. I knew something was wrong but by then my husband was sick and I didn’t pay much attention to it. In my dream, I am walking in a very dark alley at midnight, with a lit candle in the palm of my hands. I saw a bright temple in the distance, but it was far away from my reach. I was walking fast and then slow to keep up with the blowing winds. The pain was there even in my dream. I was worried someone maybe following me in such a late hour. I grew scared and lonelier. But my voice forced in my ears “ steady”. I don’t know if I made it to the temple or not. But the dream went away. Recollecting this experience gave me chills. It was painful even searing but I learned a lot about myself. It never left me. This drawing is a window into how real my experience felt to me and how it has continued to stay with me, through diagnosis, survival and hope. Alchemical Vessels 19
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Travis Childers Sugar-Coated Bedroom Sugar, bowl, doll house furniture, wood, gel medium, gesso. It’s always been difficult for me to make ar t directly about my personal experiences. I like to think my work is more about my ideas than my life, but in looking at my all my work, I realize there’s more of me in my pieces than I realized. I thought about the difficult domestic situations I’ve encountered and how I made it through those difficult times. It seems I was either shielded from seeing just how bad things were or I glossed them over myself, only realizing afterward how things really were. That is why the sugar was used. Sugar is used to enhance things and make things more palatable or desirable but there is a price to pay by the negative impacts sugar can have on you, just as there is a price to pay for living somewhat in denial. I also chose the bedroom as the setting because for many of us growing up it is our first real sanctuary. It is the place where as teenagers we can truly be ourselves and escape from the world.
Mara Clawson Bacon and Eggs glaze and decal on porcelain The majority of the people who have Familial Dysautonomia (FD) receive their nutrition and hydration through a gastric tube, lifelong. Mara feels very lucky to be able to eat and drink. “Food makes me happy!” There are times when Mara cannot eat because of her FD. She likes to think about going out to eat and to talk about her favorite foods. She enjoys drawing food in great detail, relishing every aspect of eating in a way that can be acutely appreciated by anyone who has gone for some time without being able to eat. Mara’s joy is evident when viewing her sumptuous depiction of one of her favorite subjects. “I like Pizza” “I like Kimchee” “I like Sushi, especially Eel” “I like pasta, Italian all kinds” Spaghetti and meatballs “Borreetooos!” “Dumplings…”
Irene Clouthier Star (piñata) Color acrylic panels, resin and plastic beats Star is my own interpretation of a star piñata. And the metaphor is that often when facing adversity and pain, you have to break the outside to get to the core and the essence of things like whacking a piñata to get to the candy.
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Ellen Cornett Why There Is a Hare in the Moon Graphite The folktale, Why There Is a Hare in the Moon celebrates comradeship, kindness and generosity. Hare, Fox and Monkey live together in harmony, having vowed to suppor t each other and kill no living creature. Their resolve is tested by Manito, a spirit who appears at their door as a hungry stranger. Fox and Monkey offer Manito food found in the forest, taking none for themselves. Even so, the stranger is still hungry. Hare, unable to find even a berry in the forest, prepares to jump into a fire to roast himself. Manito catches Hare before he lands in the fire, and lifts him to the moon where everyone can see and hear the tale of Hare’s selflessness. As the moon illuminates the black night, kindness, generosity and friendship shine a light during dark times.
Lama Dajani Unfinished Acrylic, metal wire, wood, ink, charcoal, tape This “unfinished” mixed media vessel is abstract and experimental as in coming to life spontaneously through a range of randomly arranged contrasting materials, treated with multi-layered planes. It por trays a time of my life marked with complete disintegration and chaos as I was holding onto the debris of broken dreams until I drowned in an ocean of turbulent waves. I lost my way to the shore and had to ask for help to navigate my path through an unfamiliar territory. It took ar t to reassemble my fragmented self and begin the healing process. As I was creating this piece, I resisted letting my imagination get strangled by reasoned deliberation and my reason be filtered by pervasive checkpoints that keep me stranded in time and space. I had to let go of any expectations and remain loyal to that innocence I cherish in myself and others.
Richard Dana A Light in the Dark Mixed media Throughout his life my father showed me, in word and deed, how to navigate wisely many of the passages one faces in life. My father died four years ago; I began one of my darkest passages. While grieving, however, I gradually became aware of a light growing more radiant in my darkness. This light was a revelation and a final, profound gift from my father. His passing made me confront Death’s inexorable reality and my own mor tality as I never had done before. This passage through the shadow of my death made me realize deeply the shor t time that I, as all others, have to live, and, like a lens coming into focus, I saw clearly the many ultimately trivial, unimpor tant things which disturbed my passage through life, and I cast them aside. A light in a dark passage, my father gave me a serenity I have never had before.
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Brian Dailey A Note to Paula Mixed Media I took a walk this morning just before daybreak. At the end of the trail there was a majestic oak. The tree is storied amongst the regulars at this trail. It receives an abundance of affection from those that journey to see it. Likewise, its outstretched limbs extend a welcome embrace to all who visit. A few that morning attempted to reciprocate the welcoming gesture by placing their arms around the tree’s enormous bole making them to appear prostrate against a wall of gnarled flesh. I elected instead to slowly circle and admire this sinuous mass of ar thritic limbs whose near infinite twists and turns symbolized the many paths of life. Upon completing the circle, I noticed that a bough of the tree was severed from its trunk, its absence altering the symmetry of this sturdy oak. On closer examination of this missing point in its crown, I noticed that the wound was sealed with time protecting it from future distress and prolonging its fateful day. Despite time healing the wound, a scar remained for all to see. As I pondered the plight of this magnificent tree, I reached high and placed my hand on the scar hoping to learn how it came to terms with such a woeful loss. After a moment, a gentle breeze rustled its leaves as if to say, flow with the winds of change.
Anna U Davis The Power of Me Ink, paper, thread and fabric on wooden loop At a time when facing the unknown, experiencing the beauty of nature, reminded me of the strength and the persistence I possessed to carry on.
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Delna Dastur Untitled Mixed Media Never having created or worked on a circular vessel I felt challenged by the invitation to par ticipate in the Alchemical Vessel Show at the Joan Hisaoka Gallery. The further challenge was to por tray the theme of the Night Journey: “a path through darkness, where we face our fears and confront the unknown. We never come back the same as we were, but if we are fortunate, we come back stronger and wiser than before.” I had to reflect on this for quite some time and several ideas star ted streaming through my head. The first step was to find a bowl. I decided on a wooden bowl, since hanging a clay or glass bowl would be difficult. I finally found what I wanted at Bed, Bath and Beyond, a salad bowl with a wide interior surface. I went through several iterations before settling on the final work. For example, I considered creating a dark surface on the outside and a light, brighter one within, showing the movement from darkness to peace. My plan was to write words depicting sorrow and pain in different sizes and colors on the outside and words full of hope on the inside. Somehow this did not materialize. Instead I started experimenting by mixing dark blue into fiber paste to create shapes. I spread the colored paste onto my palette taking care to create delicate edges. I then embedded burlap fibers into these irregular sized shapes. These brown strands whipped around the bowl, to indicate an agitated state of mind. I left the uneven, delicate edges protruding beyond the edge of the bowl to suggest disruption. I discovered that by spreading fiber paste onto my palette, it picked up paint I had previously poured onto it. Having learnt this I used gold acrylic markers to make patterns with dots. I combined the shapes with deliberately created dots along with those which had accidental marks on them, overlapping them. This superimposition was aimed to resemble the unfolding of flower petals on the inside of the bowl. The white, gold and bright colors suggest hope and harmony. The roundness of the bowl made it difficult to paste the shapes both inside and out. There was much to be learnt working it out. I hope to incorporate what I’ve experienced creating my Alchemical Vessel into my usual way of working, on stretched canvas. And I’m thankful for the oppor tunity to expand my horizons both intellectually, emotionally and physically.
Rachel Debuque Space Rocks Ceramic, Sand, Paint Her research spans installation, sculpture, video, and performance. Debuque de-familiarizes space and objects using common decorating design strategies such as pattern, paint, and the arrangement of objects. Her work purposefully plays with two and three-dimensional realms, creating a push/pull in perceptions. Vibrant colors to create directional line patterns that suggest dimensional space and flatten objects with matte paints. The perception of home is challenged by combining the “normal” with the “abnormal.” She achieves this by playing with scale, color, and content. New meaning emerges through the relationship of the familial via cultural decoding. This allows a process of apperception: when the atmosphere is nostalgic and unfamiliar at the same time. Alchemical Vessels 25
Nehemiah Dixon III Hole/whole 2017 Steel, Ash, Plywood A hole is an opening through something, a gap. A whole is all of something.
Rex Delafkaran Stacked Deep and Through Glass, ceramic, honey, rope A curiosity for language circulates through my work. In my sculptural and performative projects I visualize language in embodied ways. In exploring the formal relationships, vulnerability and intimacy found when I express ideas with my body, I represent that dialogue externally in objects. These objects can take such forms as vessels, abstracted tools, and plush soft sculpture on the cusp of kitsch. The most exciting moments in creating for me are those when language, failure and intimacy collide. Making ar t as an Iranian American woman, the tensions and contradictions I experience make their way into the work. I envision a troubling of language and identity, seeking and obscuring meaning, often using Farsi both literally and as reference. I access aesthetics of repetition, eroticization and failure congruently in order to explore the of the body as object and object as body. Through the vehicle of performance these aesthetic choices are deployed with the language of dance, and the task based histories of performance ar t for the gallery. Via sculpture I use ceramic, fabric, and mixed media to provoke and question in the conversations I star t. I wish to consider the emotional qualities of an object, how language obstructs or exposes, and the relationship between object, function and failure.
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Jim Doran Alchemical Vessel #2 (this too shall pass) Ink on paper cut-outs, metal tin My work explores the human relationship with the dead. I’m interested in positive human transformation, and the development of human consciousness. I make dioramas and animations to explore these ideas, and my work often combines the sea, humor, the macabre and the divine
Spencer Dormitzer Down Roundabout Archival Ink drawing on paper It comes in waves, the feeling of inadequacy, doom; as if searching for something you know you will not find. There is a cer tain comfor t in this space. The familiarity of intentionally defeated promise and the ability to extinguish light with a mere thought - so easy to obtain and can attach itself beautifully to romantic sadness and tragic brilliance… This has been my night’s Journey. I have clung to it and I have eviscerated it. I am always finding ways to overcome it. Lately, things have been really good. I learned how to surf (badly) years ago and there is a famous saying… “The best surfer is the person who has the most fun…” I guess I bring this quote up because I think about being out in the water on a longboard often, looking for the next wave and far ther out into the horizon. The peace and engagement with the ear th is something I think fondly of and miss much as it’s been years since I been out surfing. When the right wave comes, you prepare yourself to drop in at the perfect spot, when a gnarly wave approaches, you duck under and try and not eat it. Choosing the right time to go back to land because the chop gets too heavy is an act of survival, not a capitulation or cowardice. It’s when the waves catch you by surprise is when you are in trouble, confusing you and forcing your hand to make ill-advised decisions… And those waves usually keep coming. Honestly, I am unsure how this statement per tains to Down Roundabout. I star ted one place and ended in another. This piece reminds me of that heavy feeling and looking for the light. That said, I really wish I was a better surfer.
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Sarah Eargle Namaste Ceramic The wounds of the hear t burn deep and long lasting. In the wake of loss, we must all embark on a journey to rediscover and make one’s self whole again. My own journey lead me to the practice of yoga. At the end of each class, it is common for the instructor to say, “the light in me honors the light in you,” followed by the word Namaste. Taken literally, The Night’s Journey, could be one that requires a flashlight, another reminder of the ways in which light functions to illuminate our path and carry us to safety.
Mary Early Untitled (radial lines) Beeswax My work concentrates on a select few forms. I have chosen cer tain shapes that I use in repetition to create larger objects. For example, hollow fluted shapes are fabricated in multiples, stacked, and assembled together to create a mass. This “mass” takes on variations; from a hoop shape resembling a skir t, to a dense circular ring resting on the floor, to an arch beginning at floor level and rising up to barely meet the wall. The sculptures can incorporate from three or four to over a thousand components, each component made up of its own multiple par ts. Each shape is created through a series of fabrication steps - measured, cut, and assembled by hand - resulting in subtle irregularities. When aggregated into a complete form, the sum of the repeated shapes exhibits a staggered and constantly changing pattern. Beeswax creates a smooth, rich, and seamless surface, alluding to naturally occurring forms, which on first glance appear unified and uninterrupted, but when examined closely, reveal creases or folds or other irregularities indicating their origin.
Cheryl Edwards Time Assemblage of glass tubes, Japanese handmade paper, pearls and various gems, oil paint, found mirror, “Purple Rain” CD by Prince “Time” is about the journey from the year of 2016 through 2017. Within each glass time capsule are words associated with the shifts often dark which occurred in 2016 and lingers within the presence. In the center of the vessel is a cd entitled “Purple Rain” embedded with cascades of pearls. The pearls represent tears and Prince’s album represents an illumination of light and hope. Remember the old saying this too shall pass. I am hopeful that the resistance of 2017 will result in such positivity and the world will be filled light.
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Lauren Emeritz Shining Through Paper, Wire, Wood, Ribbon My Vessel is a book that opens to radiating circle using color to depict sadness, anxiety, fear, and joy; sometimes as separate large blocks and sometimes all mixed together.
Heloisa Escudero Transforming The Night Red Jail Cell Wood, paper, old catalog images and two par t epoxy “Transforming The Night Red Jail Cell� is a piece that speaks about those times when you wake up in the middle of night and your thought makes you a prisoner. Your jail cell is the inability to fall asleep and the only thing that will help is to transform all your thought into a daydream situation. This visualization process helps you to focus on the positive, taking you away from the thoughts that keeps you awake.
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Lisa Farrell Navigation Vessel, Mosquito Bay, 2017 Ceramic bowl, porcelain paint Navigation Vessel is a dark night adventure, a scientific learning journey to experience the famous bioluminescent bay, a rare ecosystem in Vieques, Puerto Rico. Navigation Vessel is connected with spirit, and exploration, and legends like the Fountain of Youth. To steer the vessel on the earth’s water, the ships wheel is painted on one side, its form traced from my own ships wheel. On the other side of the vessel, Mosquito Bay is painted using pearlescent colors, sparkling with life. Alchemy is present here. Here, bioluminescence is caused by very special things coming together in this unique location: persistent high concentrations of marine dinoflagellates that emit bursts of light when agitated, thought to result from a delicate balance between land and water conditions, available nutrients, and biological interactions. A navigation revelation also took place for me on that night journey to Mosquito Bay, it was shared by the guide, who showed a method to locate the North Star when out to sea, using your hands: hold one hand along the horizon, then the other hand over that hand, two hands up the sky from the horizon finds the North Star. Gregory Ferrand As It Was Before, So It Shall Be Again Acrylic paint on ceramic bowl When I was first invited to create a vessel based on the Night Journey, I struggled to find my story. I don’t normally paint stories that are so personal but when I allowed myself to be free, the story I should tell became quite obvious. Shor tly before my father died, I had become a father for the second time. I was already beginning to understand what my mor tality meant, in a way that’s impossible if your life is unmarked by time, tragedy or death. My father asked in his will that a por tion of his ashes be buried in the cemetery in his hometown next to his parents’ graves. So when winter had given way to spring and then summer, we all loaded into our cars and made the long drive from DC to western Michigan. When we arrived at his plot, the groundskeeper was waiting for us; the small hole for the ashes already dug, his pickup loaded with dir t, and a shovel leaning against it. We stood there, we spoke of him, there were tears, and then we all began the symbolic act of putting him to rest, each of us tossing dir t into the hole where his ashes lay, and then there was silence. It was understood that the groundskeeper would complete the task of filling in the hole but I kept on going, filling the hole myself, feeling, with each shovelful of dirt, the reality that my father no longer existed. And then my oldest son, who was 4 at the time, came to my side and helped me finish filling the hole. In that moment, the cyclical nature of life and death couldn’t have been more obvious or cathartic to me.
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Mary Freedman Synchronized Circles graphite on paper on matboard Drawing is about the trace of human touch. I am attracted to the beauty and versatility of line. Whether poetic and meandering, or gestural and responsive, a line can get to the hear t of the matter. For a few years I drew through various dried plants arrangements which allowed the possibility of “letting go” of a painful situation for hours at a time. I drew each one over and over in variety of ways. I found that there is an intimacy in repetition. This suited my mood, and allowed for discovery. There was a progressive internalization of the subject that was replacing the stress and worry of what I was experiencing. It changed my drawing. My vessel is one of those drawings coupled with a circular hole or opening that I think of as a void, a space full of what is not yet there. There is always hope, and the ability to heal.
Emily Fussner Removal Handmade pigmented cotton-abaca paper (cast in asphalt cracks) I did not ask for this removal from society, This absence of responsibility and Presence of pain that hindered My ability To be the strong Independent Woman I am. And being so, I might tell of the glass half full, Of the people who suppor ted me--saints that they are-And the relatively swift recovery--miracle that it was-And fail to speak of long restless nights, Lonely tears at 12 and 4 in the morning. But those moments created space to heal From more than fractured bones.
Ric Garcia Companion Acrylic and mixed media on paper mounted to wood panel My vessel “Companion” represent Lord Ganesha and the symbols associated with the power of his divinity. He is known as the Lord of good for tune, new beginnings, and remover of obstacles. The nature of life can offer oppor tunity to embark on healing journeys. It was during one of these journeys that a friend, practicing Hinduism, introduced me to Ganesha. I came to perceive his healing power through his symbols. During my journey through darkness I’d often visualize him as a companion, swallowing into his big belly the sorrows of my journey while protecting me and providing for my well being.
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Mark Garrett Ouroboros: Rings II Mixed Media Ouroboros: a symbol widely recognized as a reminder of both the infinite and our finite conceptions of infinity. With either a snake chasing it’s tail or actually consuming itself is the most familiar depictions of the iconic idea. I wanted to put for th a take on the ideas a little beyond their typical iconography. By making an interactive vessel that puts forth the idea of the Snake chasing it’s tail on laden rings that spin. The variations in size represent different points in history where mankind would continually strive for immor tality unsuccessfully baring no difference to the enormity of our present and mankind’s attempts therein. Using a more simplified rendition of the symbolism to evoke the passage in time of design to represent a simple concept with simple form.
Janis Goodman The Other Side of the World Oil on tin pie pan The Other side of the World, Night Journey is a painting on a pie pan. The palette makes reference to the endless sky moving from daylight into evening. The clouds suggest the ever changing world and colliding of elements. There is no beginning and no end. There is only the continual movement of time.
Matthew Grimes Note to Self Mixed Media Quite often when we are presented to someone, an idea, a challenge, a problem, or a perspective it is common to actually be experiencing two formidable foes. The first is the thing itself, while the second and probably most difficult obstacle is ourselves. Only until realizing this can we make any true movement forward to conquer and resolve what is out in front of us. This calibration, or taking account of who we actually are at any given point aids in allowing a more realistic pursuit to obtaining an authentic result, whether we like the outcome or not. This then has a ripple effect, affording those closest to our struggle to better asser t their empathy and to possibly promote a similar strategy for that person to be exercised in their own worlds. The inherent fact of death, while a common denominator for us all, is often dealt with in a very private manner, and often only once we are placed at its threshold. This is my Night’s Journey. As I have, and continue to understand the impermanence of existence, I find that a cer tain confusion or unneeded weight can be removed from the equation to better allow for the obstacle to be exposed and given the chance to be appropriately managed. Alchemical Vessels 34
Stefan Greene HELM Electronic circuit, LED lights, relay modules, motors Imagination is a physiological response to the communication between neurological sensory networks in the human body. Our brain receives and organizes signals, responds to millions of sensors, and activates behavioral adjustments all while capacitating vital physical functions. Similar to the way memory and imagination exist in neurological sensory networks, distress is also transmitted through these networks in the form of pain. Interestingly, we can accurately locate the origin of most pains, but the true source of imagination remains a mystery. Helm is a conglomeration of industrial materials including an electronic circuit, LED lights, relay modules, and motors. Each element of the ar twork establishes relevance through singularly accessible meanings, but when repositioned as a unit the individual significance of each component is abstracted to create something imaginary. The communication between the helmet and the respirator represent an evolutionary segment of instinctual behavior.
Adam Hager Saw Blade Saw blade, string My ar tistic process begins by collecting objects. Machine par ts and other tools resonate with me. They have a humble beauty - designed to create rather than to be admired. My interventions draw attention to the beauty of the object without obscuring or altering its essential form. Wrapping the blade with a string was a slow, meditative process. The repetition of this mundane action recalled the way I’ve experienced healing in my life, where change rarely comes through dramatic moments. Instead, personal growth is gained through slow, methodical, small, repetitive actions. With each turn of the string around the blade, little progress is shown. Over time, the object is transformed.
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Mia Halton Mom Ceramic My piece is titled “Mom”. On September 27th, 2013 a hit and run driver left my mom seriously brain damaged. It was at that point that I began using clay. My work until then had been on paper or canvas. I was full of rage and grief after the car accident. I needed a material that I could work physically. Two stories are being addressed in this piece: Mom’s, and ours together. We thought my 83-year-old mom wouldn’t make it through the two brain surgeries and, if she did, would she have any of her faculties. Before the accident she was painting, exhibiting, cooking for friends, volunteering, exercising, and dancing with Dad. She lived through the surgeries but she’d lost everything. The glazed ceramic vessel is 9” x 7” x 7”. It’s dark, essentially black, with bits of golden color showing through. The top doesn’t fit perfectly, so the inside can always be seen. The size of the piece approximates the human head. The bands of clay wrapping around in a circular fashion are reminiscent of the bandages. I’ve been one of Mom’s caregivers since the accident. She’s very frail, and is on Hospice now. She can’t read, lift her hands, concentrate, or make decisions, but she can see herself and her situation with crystal clarity. We talk now; we couldn’t before. When Mom said to me the other day that she’d been a terrible mother I hesitated before saying that was history. She told me that she believed she was still here so she could be a good mother to me. Mom and I found gold, ourselves, and each other, as we circled around through the darkness of healing.
KeyHan Lee Fragments Mixed media: collage, house paint, and skateboard fragments in honey glycerin soap on wood panel. This piece, made specifically for the Alchemical Vessels show, titled “Fragments” addresses memories both positive and negative. He was exposed to porn at a young age and it eventually became an addiction adversely affecting his career and relationships. As a teenager, he discovered Skateboarding which helped eventually helped free him of this addiction. Fragments of porn magazine pages & skateboard fragments suspended in honey glycerine soap. KeyHan is a mixed media ar tist based in Arlington, VA. His interest in pop-ar t, surrealism, dadaism, low-brow street ar t, define the aesthetics of his works. His process often explores layers, textures/ patterns, and contrasting themes that engages the viewer’s own introspection.
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Mansoora Hassan Diya/Chiragh Baked clay, oil, handmade wick, photograph In Eastern cultures, this handmade ear thenware is called “diya” and the light it emits is “chiragh”. A diya is lit at shrines of saints, for the celebration of auspicious occasions, when making a wish, or upon the fulfillment of one. For me today, this work symbolises the commemoration of the for thcoming end of a ten-year cour t battle. I was thrust into a lawsuit in Abbottabad, Pakistan I could never have fathomed I would have to face - I had no idea about or experience with how to confront this unfortunate situation long distance. During the first few years I had to learn to manage with a baby step forward and several steps backwards, given the terribly slow and inadequate cour t system. Post this initial period of frustration compounded with anger, I had no choice but to learn to graduate towards calmness and serenity by leaning on a spiritual approach towards adversity that fast-forward has empowered me.
Caroline Hatfield Formative Center Mixed Media Landscape has always been a signifier of potential, a canvas on which to paint our journey, and a distant horizon to reach for. This work presents such a place in pure, elemental form. The por tal reveals a foreign, minimal landscape with a subtle glimmer of light. The light is ambiguous - a sunrise, sunset, or some other source of hope found at the center, as it so often is.
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Sean Hennessey Ashes of Burnt Bridges Glass, Paint,Cork, Glitter Sometimes the darkness that befalls us, the trails we face, the sadness we carry can become the shimmering aspects of our self and our future. The burning of bridges and a disengagement of the past and former lives can leave us brighter. Or can return us to a happier self.
Jeff Herrity (Jeffery Paul) You Are Still You felt, plexiglass, LED lights, porcelain It all star ted with a text message right after my bir thday last May. Something I wondered about all my life was confirmed. My father isn’t my biological father. In a few moments, my life changed and I discovered that my entire life was a lie. I didn’t know who I was. Suddenly, I became two people and the world around me didn’t seem real anymore. Everything I based my identity on was a lie. I wasn’t real anymore. I became uncomfor table around other people and still am. Every day I go through life pretending all is fine, but inside feeling lost, not knowing where I belong in this Universe. Visiting Kusama exhibit at the Hirshhorn and while in one of the mirror rooms, I understood a little more about my path. Standing alone among what appear to be millions of flickering lights, my honest and sad self staring back at me a million times over, as if Kusama was saying to me “You are still You.”
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Mary Welch Higgins CHANGE HANGS OVER US Mixed Media that includes Found Vessel, Antique Papers, Gouache, Self Hardening Clay, Nails, Rope and dried roses. While tensions and creative influences collide in this vessel, the original story of my night journey was a near fatal medical condition at the age of 19. My night journey was the path from a patient in an intensive care unit to physical and emotional health years later. What I learned was that the night journey was not so much the event but the aftermath and the struggle to deal with feelings of isolation and loss. During the journey, the creation of ar t was a saving grace. Through journals, drawings and sculptures, I was able to visualize what could not be said. The creative influences in this vessel include the collages of Kur t Schwitters and Lenore Tawney. The sculptural element hanging over the vessel - the power figure - is influenced by my experience of African vodun ar ts. The figure is intended to protect, empower and heal.
Leslie Holt Like souls, ready to remind us (after Proust) Mixed Media “But when from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, still, alone, more fragile, but with more vitality, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their moment, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unfaltering, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection.” Marcel Proust
Jackie Hoysted You Can’t Turn Your Back on Infinity Acrylic ink on Duralar on Gatorboard When I was diagnosed with a rare form of lung disease it didn’t seem possible that I would return to painting. Had the painting caused the disease? No one could tell me. Six months into recovery I began a very small painting and relapsed. For sure, painting was not in the cards for me anymore. When something is not accessible to you other things emerge from hidden spaces and are revealed to you. You find new ways to approach old things. For me, that was to change the way I paint – now I keep a physical distance from the paint and just pour and wait to see what happens. I open myself to chance and surprise in a way I would never have allowed before. Then, I controlled everything, now I control nothing but in return I experience excitement waiting to see what chance will give me.
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Aaron Hughes (with Ehren Tool) Mni Wiconi (Water is Life) Ceramic Mni Wiconi (water is life) is the prayerful call of the people of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and the thousands of water protectors fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline in Nor th Dakota. This call has hit a cord that transcends politics and resonates with millions of people’s struggles for survival, including those within the fight against cancer. Let water be the foundation of a healthy sustainable future. Min Wiconi.
Melissa Ichiuji Scandal, 2017 Mixed media: feathers, textiles, thread, wire, clay, wood Scandal All that was came crashing down when your hip tickled mine Grit from every ancient town erased our grand design Pinky cut upon a lip all kissy salty blood What began as scandalous turned milky, icy, Love. How the tune exploded out when your hear t plucked at mine All the notes hung crooked so rang brutally sublime What it was can’t be touched with pin or painted square Bones betwixt the mind of sick Forget you… I won’t dare. * My par ticipation in Alchemical Vessels is dedicated to Richard Gilber t, Asako Ichiuji and Rhona Pillersdorf.
Marty Ittner Out of the Blue Cyanotype, vintage frame, LED lights Once a year, I go skinny dipping in a small tidal tributary in the Chesapeake Bay. The current is either ebbing or flooding, I don’t know which. Sometimes it takes me somewhere. Above is the sun, sparkling on the water and warming my body. An annual ritual of pure joy, physical and spiritual.
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Charles Jean Pierre Little Black Pearl (LBP) Ceramic Tile, Ceramic Bowl, and Acrylic Paint Little Black Pearl represents a collective denial of shared experiences. The three shades of grey reflect the darkness that haunts people. The vessel represents the structural obstacles that cause individuals to go to a figurative dark place where they are suspended in shadows of a foreign familiarity. The monochromatic tiles represent groups of disconnected individuals forced to navigate the same dark maze of life. I wanted the geometric pattern to play like a visual song of faint dark sounds within the weighted vessel.
Wayson Jones Ship mixed media on paper mounted on museum board Transformation as a journey, the journey by ship, the wake see from above.
Jessica Kallista Then You Will Be Ready (dedicated to Tom Scariano) Collage & LED lights on Wooden Bowl Five years ago I was hiding out in suburbia, covering my light and wondering how to survive. Then You Will Be Ready tells the story of how I confronted depression, anxiety, and agoraphobia and have come to exist in a new realm of healing through meditation focusing on the 7 chakras. Not only have I navigated through this par ticular journey of the dark night, but I have also come to a place where I thrive and collaborate with others to provide strength, growth, and bliss for all. Then You Will Be Ready is dedicated to my dear friend Tom Scariano who passed away on November 28, 2016 after a sudden and brief battle with small cell lung carcinoma. I know he is also now in a new realm filled with healing, light, and bliss.
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Sally Kauffman Synergy Ceramic, vintage porcelain par ts, clay, acrylic paint The election of our 45th president shocked the nation and the world, shattering a society blindsided by hate. Fear seeped into the cracks as we retreated into ourselves. We re-emerged united, stronger together.
Don Kimes Phoenix Mixed media on canvas DON KIMES divides his time between Chautauqua, NY, Italy, and Washington, DC. For more than two decades he has worked extensively in western New York State and Umbria - places he goes “to have consecutive thoughts in a world where it is increasingly difficult to have the chance to simply focus.” In a catalogue essay for an exhibition of his work in Munich, he wrote about the relationship between nature and culture saying Italy affords the oppor tunity to think about culture, nature and the passage of time . . . In the end nature takes everything back. Seven years later a flood destroyed his home and studio. He subsequently wrote about the loss of nearly all of the works on paper he had ever done - 25 years wor th - most of his photos, filing cabinets full of writing, and many other elements of a life’s work. It felt like the record of my existence had been erased. The house and furnishings seemed incidental by comparison. Nature took ever ything back. My work is now based on those destroyed images. Through them color, form and structure combine with nature, time, memor y, loss and rebirth. But I think that might be what my work was always about.
JT Kirkland Subspace_253 Acrylic on found wooden bowl When I consider the theme of The Night Journey, I reflect on how I can collaborate with wood as my foundation in a way that is mutually beneficial. My work is representative of a larger struggle: man vs. nature. We have an abundance of natural and beautiful resources. Though plentiful, they are finite. We receive shor t-term benefit for these resources but at an unknown long-term cost. My painting strikes a balance between the natural beauty of wood and my interference with it. The bowl has beautiful grain and its live bark edge speaks to the material’s history. The approximate square-within-a-square asser ts itself to the viewer. It is separate from the wood, on the wood, and in the wood. Depth is blurred and the relationship between rigid and organic forms heightens the tension within the piece. Although the exhibition’s concept is to highlight the challenges associated with our pursuit I have one final concern. I’ve brought attention to the beauty of wood by manipulating it as a painting, but have I only contributed to the problems discussed above? By purchasing this bowl, am I encouraging the destruction of more forests? And for what, a cheap wooden bowl? The journey continues… Alchemical Vessels 44
Micheline Klagsbrun Violet Wing Vessel Tissue paper, ink, medium, pigment, fragments of drawings This vessel is constructed by molding fragments of drawings together, using a mixture of thin tissue paper, medium, ink and pigment, in a type of papier-machĂŠ technique I designed to hold light. It includes images that refer to a journey: a wing, a leaf, a path, a hidden figure. The creation of these vessels is itself a journey in that some of them, depending on the initial construction, initially change slowly over time. Many dozens of them sit for months under observation in my studio as I decide whether and how to intervene in their process. Violet Wing Vessel has changed from the perfect circle into a looser more idiosyncratic and timeworn shape, but still a complete periphery. I would not want to restore its original geometry. It has undergone its journey and in the process has acquired its own unique form.
Catherine Kleeman Something for Your Troubles Cotton clothesline rope covered with hand dyed cotton fabric and stitched together ; beads Sometimes you just need a place to put your problems while you go on with the rest of your life.
Reagan Lake Advanced Maternal Age canvas, acrylic paint, spray paint, waxed thread, sonogram My vessel is a figurative piece representing myself at 39 years old, after being told I could not have my own children. The silhouette of a distended belly and hand have been cut from a stretched, painted canvas, which was split down the center and then stitched together using waxed thread and a strong sewing needle. A sonogram from that time -- of a fetus that later did not survive -- is affixed to the figure’s hand. I then attached the figure to a circular canvas painted black. The sonogram is the only remaining evidence I have of the existence of this baby. In providing it for the vessel, I hope to release myself from the powerful feelings of grief and loss.
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Kyujin Lee Maker’s Hand, Intravenous Vehicle, 2017 ink, acrylic, mulberry paper, acrylic medium Maker’s hand at work. The act of creation makes a journey towards healing possible.
Freda Lee-McCann Untitled Paper Mache The image in my vessel is about a journey along the river, passing through the different obstacles or difficulties of life, some big and some small as depicted by the size of the rocks and the mountains. There is optimism in the image shown by the bright colors. I painted a landscape using flat shapes and bright colors, a depar ture from my usual paintings. However, I included some Chinese calligraphy in the image as usual. One of the darkest times in my life was when I came from Taiwan, alone at the age of 16, to this country. With hard work and determination, I managed to graduate from college. I was very for tunate that everything worked. There is a Chinese saying, “The Future is without limit”, I grew up believing. Whenever I encountered tough and dark times, I held on to the belief that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes the tunnel may seem very long and it is hard to see any possibility that a light could exist at the end – but there is. Liz Lescault Convolution Polymer clay and mixed media “Convolution” is dedicated to my husband and his long journey from darkness into the light. As his par tner, I shared his journey. I suffered and grew with him. As I was creating the vessel I did not know where the journey of creating would take me. Other than my feeling of how convoluted and challenging life can be with all its twist and turns and all the unexpected gifts received, I let my subconscious char t the way. The piece is in par t transparent and is lit from underneath, representing the light, empathy, humility and understanding that ultimately arose from our struggles. Turn down the room lights and the piece will glow. The dark, the night, reveal the intensity of the glowing light. Inside the piece attached to the side, is a spherical container meant to be taken out and broken open when the vessel is received by its new owner. Inside is a par t of the story. Please keep the piece in a protected place. It is fragile as is life. Alchemical Vessels 46
Erin Lisette The Self-portrait needle felted wool I’ve always had a hard time drawing people, especially human faces. There was once a time in my life when I was very sad and couldn’t draw what I looked like. Instead I drew what I felt like. I shrouded my face in leaves and put a deep dark hole in my chest. Before I knew it I’d drawn a lovely forest spirit. And this has been my self-por trait ever since. If you’re going to be a half-shrouded forest spirit you might as well own it.
Nathan Loda In the Twilight Acrylic on 12” circular panel *the Vessel is meant to be spun My painting is meant to capture the idea of a challenging yet rewarding journey. The painting is built to be spun, initiating the adventure and turning the image into confusion or historia. As the Vessel slows and the painting is fully realized the memory of the challenging journey is overshadowed by the beauty in the twilight.
Steve Loya Surrender to the Night watercolor, archival pen, collage, wood, acrylic paint and paper Not long ago I began work on a series of mixed-media pieces I called “Entities”. These were made at a time when very close family members were passing away all within a relatively shor t timeframe. The series helped me deal with the loss I felt back then, and was a way for me to attempt to make sense of things. I ended up resurrecting and reconfiguring one of those pieces into my vessel called “Surrender to the Night”. I don’t claim to know the answers to life’s great mysteries, and I’m cautious about jumping to any final conclusions about what happens when we pass on. In fact, I find immense beauty in the incomprehesibility of our vast universe, and choose to embrace the great unknown with reverence and optimism that in the end, everything will be alright, and work out as it should.
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Tsedaye Makonnen Wings beeswax, gold metal leaf Tsedaye Makonnen is an Ethiopian-American interdisciplinary ar tist. She’s drawn to conveying the African Diaspora’s creative responses to assimilating, destroying and recreating the Self within new and/ or hostile territories. The black angels depicted on the vessel are rendered from traditional Ethiopian Coptic ar t. The ar tist chose to deliberately sculpt them out of beeswax, a material known for its healing proper ties. Considering that both angels and bees are historically sacred and divine, the ar tist wanted to create a vessel that would address her own healing and that of her Diaspora. She envisions the gathering of these beeswax angels to symbolize a cyclical protective and for tifying force surrounding and uplifting her community, locally and abroad.
Jenee Mateer Untitled Wax paper I have always been interested in the stor y of the Tower of Babel where God punishes men for daring to build a tower to the heavens and confounds their speech so that they can no longer communicate with one another. As I was thinking of times in my life where the road has seemed especially difficult it occurred to me that so much of suffering comes from our inability to communicate with others; whether the result be miscommunication that leads to discord or just the feeling that no words can adequately convey the depth of our emotions. Sadness, anger and fear weigh upon the body, cloud our judgement and pull us away from light and the lightness that comes from being at peace with ourselves and the world. Another stor y that I often reference in my work is that of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. After a long journey through a strange land where she searches for a way home, Dorothy finds that the ability to get home has always been within her power. Home is a place she finds within herself. This piece is an expression of my conclusion that life is like a journey through a strange but familiar city, an invisible city that exists in the hear t and mind, where the signs are not always clear, where the choices are difficult and the outcome uncer tain. I believe that we all have a light within us and that it is the journey towards this light that ultimately allows us to overcome our difficulties. I believe it is also this light that binds us to one another in the absence of language, illuminates who we are and allows us to share our common humanity.
Carolina Mayorga Dyspepsia from the series PINK: The Art of Infatuation and Embellishment Mixed media drawing on wood My work addresses issues of social and political content. This piece is par t of PINK: The Ar t of Infatuation and Embellishment, an interdisciplinary project that comments on ethnicity, gender and identity. This self-por trait line drawing combined with the pink fluid slowly filling the vessel is a reaction to stereotyped views of race, beauty and aesthetics in popular culture.
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David Morgenstein Bootstraps Found object (mixed media) Inspirational slogans are cheap. Light is from within. I am my chains. Unfurling is bidirectional. There is always another cage. I will. Peace
Olivia Morrow Untitled (Band Saw Sphere) Band saw blades, donated fabric My recent sculptures and installations utilize donated women’s clothing, undergarments, bed sheets, and other textiles as material, which in and of itself contains a dense, complex vocabulary of social and cultural values. The obsessive dissection of women’s physical appearance is perpetuated by deeply-rooted, dysmorphic perspectives on women’s bodies, standards of beauty, and female sexuality, which pervade everyday life for most women in America. Imbued with untold personal histories, my work obscures the sentimentality of the donated fabrics by my physically deconstructing them; yet their potential significance is preserved by creating a new palette of materials, prompting viewers to form personal associations and infer narratives based on their own history. Alchemical Vessels 51
Kristine Moss Double Chicken Vessel Cotton/polyester, nylon, thermoplastic rubber, graphite, acrylic My ar t practice asks what happens when psychically charged little images become objects with public lives. Paying close attention to the ways in which technology, material and context mediate psychic and emotional information, I explore how vestiges of the intimate and emotional fare in expanded social contexts, both physical and vir tual. The dark sensuous materials of “Double Chicken Vessel” invite and repel, spiraling into a negative space of thermoplastic rubber tentacles. Doubles meet on the outer surface in the contrasting gold chicken motif. Gold-tipped tentacles stand out above. What’s going on here? Do you want to touch it? Would you rather not?
Nahid Navab Hold Me Fast Mixed media handprint and paint on wooden plate I am standing In the depth of the night, I am not waiting for the next day anymore No! I won’t *** I am here! And the next day is fading away. Something is waiting for me. It is around the corner. I have almost forgotten the color of the first rays of the sun. *** I am not scared of death anymore! She is with me! And, I worship and embrace her love. *** Moments are not yielding to the next ones. You are holding my hand so tight. Our hear tbeats have the same rhythm. And I love you more than ever. Keep holding my hand till the end of time.
Nasrin Navab Warp &Woof Mixed Media This piece features a placemat: the ver tical threads provide vibrant colors and structure running in parallel to one another while the horizontal ones provide the cross threads. Together they create a fabric that is beautiful, strong and functional. When my life par tner was diagnosed with cancer, I imagined this strong fabric as the fabric of the body. Cancer star ts as oppor tunistic cells evading the body’s normal control mechanisms and growing unchecked. As a result, the fabric of the body begins to unravel. The weave gives way to tightly wound spools with no function, leaving the body in ruin and the immune system defenseless. Around us in the socio-political sphere, a similar scenario unfolds. The tumorous spools have been forming over the past four decades. Now, those oppor tunists who have aimed to subver t society’s protective checks and balances – its immune system built up over years of evolution – are more aggressively unraveling the fabric of society for personal gain. The best way to defeat cancer is to both diagnose it in time and foster the body’s immune system. Alchemical Vessels 52
Minna Newman Nathanson Negative/Positive: A Visual Metaphor Two acrylic cylinders with vinyl tubing The turmoil that one’s life continually brings, random confrontations with the unexpected and, perhaps, unwelcome — sometimes overwhelming, sometimes trivial — doesn’t often in reality present a trajectory from low to high, from dark to light from complex to simple. These are the reassuring metaphors humanity creates to describe hoped for movement from calamity to clarity from beginning to ending, from conflict to resolution.
Thien Nguyen Look into your Heart Ceramic I see pottery as a way to connect with people. I want you to touch each piece, pick it up, and look at it from different points of view. I hope it will trigger your imagination, your memories, or remind you of something else. Everyone sees things differently so I am interested in what we see when we look at the same object. Just like each person sees different things in cloud formations, I hope you will see something in my pieces that speaks to you personally. What I most want is to surprise and eliciting your imagination so you connect my pieces with something in your memory, and in yourself. I work out of the Lee Ar ts Center in Arlington, VA. I sell my work at the Scope Gallery in the Torpedo Factory in Old Town, Alexandria, VA and the Waverly Street Gallery in Bethesda, MD. The piece Look into your Hear t is thrown on the wheel using recycled stoneware clay. It is raku fired with a glaze containing iron, copper and borax. What I like about raku is different every time and you never know what you will get. I have refired this piece several time since I did not like the mainly clear green color it was. Now it is much darker with black, brown, red, metallic, and mirrored finish. The color change with the viewing angle. It has layers and depth and complexity. Alchemical Vessels 53
Shanti Norris Meeting the Lion Metal, clay, acrylic paint, graphite The night journey has been a theme in my life since I was a child. I often dreamt of opening the door into a room where I saw a table and chairs whose legs had been badly chewed and mauled. Though I couldn’t see it, I felt the terrifying presence of a lion. I had this dream many times and would wake in the middle of the night frozen with fear. Though terrified, I knew that I wanted to, HAD TO go into the room and see what would happen. This molded sphere appeared to me in another dream recently while preparing for the vessel exhibition. Perhaps it is that old dream room transformed over the years, now with many ways to enter and leave. Perhaps each cyclical journey of fear and loss creates a por tal in the vessel until eventually we are left with this – many ways to move in and out of the experience of the night journey. And the vessel slowly turns towards gold.
Sarah O’Donoghue ungovernable Plastic, torn bed sheets from my banner crafted for The Women’s March on Washington, spray paint, wire, AA batteries, lights, duck tape Directions: In case of an emergency, turn on small black light switch located on the back of vessel to reflect on our spiraling political state.
Anthony Palliparambil, Jr. Power. Less. Ink and graphite on paper The hallucinatory euphoria of my life met its violent end, replaced by a tremendous feeling of powerlessness. Women marched while I moved. Masses called while I wrote. Voices rose while I cried -- it was impossible not to. How can I continue to live in the fantasy when so many others cannot? How can I make these two years have meaning for anyone beyond just…me? Nancy reassured me that my actions – my life – was protest in itself, and I clung to her words as my lifeline. I still do. I can be resilient, as I have been before. I can rebuild, as I have done before. Liber ty and Justice, Liber ty and Justice.
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John Paradiso Reclaimed Mixed Media The pink triangle was one of the Nazi concentration camp badges, used to identify male prisoners who were sent there because of their homosexuality. Originally intended as a badge of shame, the pink triangle (often inver ted from its Nazi usage) has been reclaimed as an international symbol of gay pride and the gay rights movement. We now wear the pink triangle by choice and to display pride.
Nara Park Embrace Bamboo bowl, stone-textured house paint My work investigates simulations of nature as expressions of the human desire for immor tality. Stone is often used to commemorate the dead: it is a symbol of strength, stability and permanence. After witnessing the death of a loved one and experiencing grief, I began to ponder mor tality and the desire for permanence. What I realized was nothing is permanent. Even rocks get worn away by wind and water, and eventually disappear. My use of materials reflects the fact that what we perceive to be permanent is actually ephemeral. In my work, I explore how far I can push the boundaries of imitations in order to inspire reverence and respect for its visual effect. I do not aim to trick the viewer with the faux, but rather generate life from it. Many of my sculptures are hollow inside in order to emphasize that there is a void under the surface of a monumental structure. Opposing states coexist: hollowness inside bulkiness, physical lightness inside visual heaviness, and immanence within emptiness. They are only surfaces, yet they may be more than that.
Lyric Prince We Are One/Never Again Digital pigment print on melamine plate Lately, I’ve been moved by the recent developments concerning immigrants within this country, and I see parallels between the current travel restrictions to one that Jewish people have faced in the not-so-distant past. “We Are One” is a paraphrase from a Sufi poem by Rumi, and “Never Again” is a phrase coined by those of Jewish descent in response to the Holocaust. With the help of Iranian, Arabic, and Jewish friends, I translated each of these phrases into Farsi, Arabic, and Hebrew and created a visual collage that alternates the visual order and sense of these words. This piece is not intended to be religious in nature, but instead focuses on the universal spirituality and cycles that binds us all as human beings. Finally, this plate will be mass-produced and spread at low-cost, since the value of the words greatly exceeds the value of anything else I can make.
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Judith Peck Plate of Armor Enamel paint and epoxy on found object Growing up as an outsider informed my approach as an ar tist, working on themes of social justice. My vessel bears an enamel painting of two inter twined figures from Roman mythology, based on a design from the parade armor of Henry II of France. The presence of symbols of war on this everyday object evoke the intrusion of threat into peaceful existence and the cruel necessity of psychic armor for many in day-to-day life. The cracks in the vessel are repaired in a nod to the Japanese ar t of kintsugi; rather than hide the object’s damage or dispose of it, these imperfections are accentuated as essential to the unique history and beauty of the object. So to do our own individual hardships create who we are, and rather than hide the experiences that necessitated our psychic armor, we must learn to find beauty and healing even in pain.
Susana Raab From Within Outwards Not From Without Inwards Mixed Media One facet of my night journey involves surmounting distor ted thinking patterns of my mother. She was woman who lived solely for the male gaze. Represented in this circle are my maternal grandfather whose influence on our lives was devastating. Recovering from this upbringing involved learning to accept male love without dismissing it entirely, and focusing on my relationship to myself, as suggested by the title. My mother’s face is represented in the middle, but she is blinded by the phrase “Who do men say that I am?” She is dressed in the clothing of a Peruvian Catholic saint, my country of origin and a heritage which I was not allowed to claim, until as an adult I was able to begin the process of reconciliation with my estranged Peruvian father. To make this piece I perused a book about the bible, cutting out phrases until an idea came into my intuition and sourcing photographs from my family archive. Carol Reed Wheel Mixed media (Charcoal, graphite, wood stamps, black ink, on cotton watercolor paper) My search for visual logic is not just a means to tell a story but rather an attempt to understand my history, living in the world. I am fascinated with the impacts that occur through disruption, inevitability, letting go-- significant currents that change us. To construct an object as a response that is both personal and artistically relevant, I considered the power of these transitions. My imagery emerged at the boundaries—both simultaneously abstract and representational-- between the unrecognizable and the everyday. “It is tempting to write the history of technology through products: the wheel; the microscope; the airplane; the Internet. But it is more illuminating to write the history of technology through transitions: linear motion to circular motion; visual space to sub visual space; motion on land to motion on air ; physical connectivity to virtual connectivity.” Siddhar tha Mukherjee, The Gene: An Intimate History Alchemical Vessels 58
Mojdeh Rezaeipour Flowers Bleed Blackest Paper, gold leaf, orchids, beeswax and pyrography on wood Over the past couple of years, my work has organically shifted from a light and playful cutting and tearing into a much deeper, more raw and intimate quest for narrative. I find myself visiting a hidden chest of feelings about the very far away world I come from, a place from which I feel bitterly estranged. I create in an ever-evolving and ephemeral exploration of darker subjects in today’s world, through the appropriation of whimsical imagery, juxtaposed against heavier and often autobiographical themes. Childhood photos, disembodied self por traits, and other representations of me often make appearances in the work itself as I revisit dreams and realities dipped in imagination and metaphor. Through this means, I aim to make sense of my own story, assembling it not unlike a jigsaw puzzle. Acknowledgement of impermanence lies at the hear t of my findings. Thus, many of my pieces are also sculptural, making use of encaustic medium, as well as natural elements and organic objects collected from the earth. Each piece harbors a life of its own, one that is fragile and mor tal, much like our experience of being.
Jamea Richmond Edwards Breathe Ink on bisque. This drawing is inspired by the struggle my family has had over the past 12 years dealing with two of our sons fight against asthma. My husband and I are constantly adjusting various modalities within our control to pinpoint triggers, and we have been very successful most of the time. At times we’re back to square one. This drawing is an ode to the everlasting search for a cure to ailments we’re often told that doesn’t have a cure, and the necessity to faith and persistence
Jac Rust Amanda Flies Where the Panda Lies Glass vessel, found wood, jaw, rib, & ver tebrae of a deer Jac has always been interested in tactile objects and the construction of mixed materials. Through sculptural installations, wood burning, painting and printmaking, her body of work has been created to question what par ts of being human are genetically or socially ingrained in each person, and what par ts are a result of the manner in which that person was raised or taught. Her work is a fur ther examination of the theories of nature vs. nur ture through personal experiences and individual contemplations. Jac Rust is currently living and working in Baltimore, Maryland as she continues her Graduate education and ar t practice both personally and professionally.
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Lisa Rosenstein Fate Colored copper wire, aluminum armature wire, labradorite, swarovski, crystal, and amethyst. Like a circle we cannot know when we began, or when we will end. We are all travelers on the wheel of fate, or as Joni Mitchell wrote, the carousel of time. This vessel is open on both top and bottom, we are all just passing through... It is woven of colored copper wire, the rainbow colors symbolize the chakras, copper is considered a healing metal that teaches about living a fulfilling life. Aluminum can encourage an awareness of our life’s meaning and what we are meant to do. Labradorite is a protector during times of transition and change, Swarovski Crystals give positive energy and Amethyst helps to calm and bring love and peace
Nancy Sausser Where the Jewel Is Lowfire Ceramic The mantra Om mani padme hum (the jewel is in the lotus) invokes benevolent and compassionate blessings. This sculpture is meant as a visual, reverential manifestation of this mantra. A lotus flower, blended with organic forms referencing sexuality and reproduction, leads to the place where peace and wholeness reside. This work celebrates the center as a place of solace and safety during the dark night.
Gretchen Schermerhorn Moonlight Pod Cast paper & watercolor I’m fascinated by our desire to understand, and ultimately control, nature. Responding the the English physicist and novelist C.P. Snow’s call for a “third culture” that bridges ar t and science, I try to blend these perspectives in both my process and completed pieces. My work focuses on biological and sociological systems of communication-DNA coding, cell division, duplication, par tnered with physical and social tools. These systems are developed and understood to a cer tain point, but are fragile and are susceptible to slow or hardly recognized changes. In this piece, Moonlight Pod, cast paper implies exactness, but as we see in nature, tiny elements within a pattern/process can become disrupted or changed, which can cause big alterations to evolutionary trajectories over time
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Alma Selimovic Untitled (Truth Will Set You Free) Mixed Media Humanness beyond social given identities is very attractive to me. As such, I am interested in the aliveness that is no longer based on typical acceptance and validation nor impacted by rejection and exclusion. It just is what it is, influenced by circumstance while now standing beyond them. It becomes beautiful abstraction. When you strip all labels, there is life, rawness, and unimaginable depth and beauty to enjoy and learn from.
Samantha Sethi (with Andy Holtin) Fire and Ice in Darkness and Light Digital video, MDF This piece stems from and includes a video and performance work I produced in 2014 titled Fire and Ice, which explored the the dueling but inseparable forces of light, darkness, ice, and fire. By striking a match in darkness what was hidden is revealed, even as the heat alters the ice and, ultimately, snuffs the flame and ends the light. This cycle of concealing, revealing, creating, and destroying continues in the work for Alchemical Vessel, contained in a dark repository that is both ominous and intimate, like a difficult memory one never theless does not wish to forget.
Alexandra Sherman En Los Manos de Otros Stainless-steel bowl, steel wire, thread, watercolor and acrylic En Los Manos de Otros (In the Hands of Others) refers to the experience of being powerless when faced with life-threatening conditions and surgeries of loved ones. The stainless-steel bowl represents that of a surgeon’s, the metal a reminder of the cold and clinical, but necessary, reality of medicine. The ar terial steel wires act as a nest, one not really capable of containing or protecting, yet present nonetheless.
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Ellen Sinel Transformation: Myster y to Enlightenment Painted China, Tacks, Brass Nuts, Gold Paper Landscape painting is for me, a meditative gathering-in of nature’s constant transformations. My paintings are of real or partly imagined places in which I seek to develop an atmosphere of quiet and peace, sometimes with an overlay of mystery. My Spartina series, begun in 2006, concentrates on Cape Cod grasses which grow in and near water, and reflect nature at its deepest core - -blown by winds, warmed by sun, they live, die, and regenerate, transformed by the harsh or gentle realities of changing seasons. My current series of tree paintings continues to explore the mystery of nature altered by time and movement. Painting landscapes has drawn me into observing more closely, the increasing instability of our environment, and the beginning of the impact of global warming. Nature has become tempestuous.
Anne C Smith Sift Charcoal and acrylic on paper with stitching I am attracted to the idea of a permeable container : meant to hold, full of holes. A vessel in between solid and immaterial, able to allow material to pass through it. In one sense, the holes have undermined the vessel’s strength, but in another sense, its function and has simply been transformed. The potential for material to sift through this container, or perhaps for it to act as a lantern, represents a cer tain kind of strength -- not for its rigidity and ability to contain, but for its ability to allow some things to flow through.
Susan Stacks Freezing Point Depression salt, mesh, ribbon/variable This vessel is about resource allocation. The tools we use to maintain a current state may have detrimental impact. Preservation can be isolating and excess of use toxic. Through many storms you find an adaptable balance, a pinch, a handful, and for the occasional tempest, use liberally.
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Anneliese Sullivan PATH TO ENLIGHTENMENT Fine art paper, torn and glued. Painted with watercolor/Sumi ink “And tomorrow the sun will shine again And on the path that I shall take…” (Hermann Hesse) My Alchemical Vessel reflects this path. On my path through the experience of illness and recovery, ar t became a leitmotiv of optimism and hope. When I could not hold a brush to paint, I star ted to blow paint through a glass tube. Carl Gustav Jung, whom I had referred to in earlier critical times, says: “Enlightenment is not about imagining figures of light but of making the darkness conscious.” I strongly feel that without the challenges of the last seven years, I would not have found the inner strength to conquer my fears and embrace the beauty and magic of life.
Dafna Steinberg Fat Venus (Nudity Was Never The Problem) Mixed media on plastic Dafna Steinberg’s work has spanned a variety of mediums, including photography, video, collage, installation and performance. She works with themes that relate to the experiences of women and the fragmentation of the female body. She also makes work about interactions between men and women and how these interactions play out in building relationships and understanding. Most of the time, her work is pretty funny.
Hillary Steel The Well Textile: cotton, felt, ink, acrylic paint, sewing, wood Cloth, like no other material, surrounds us and silently bears witness to our lives. “The Well” I fall into a deep, dark space fear rules, and whispers, no escape. In time, a light, a knowing place I reach, emerge anew, with grace. Alchemical Vessels 63
Lisa Marie Thalhammer Overwhelmed Exhausted Hesitant Vintage Quaker whisky bottle, ink on paper, matches This glass vessel is a vintage Quaker Whisky bottle found in the town of the ar tist’s ancestors. Inside the viewer will find three match sticks and a list of three difficult emotions experienced in association with alcohol dependency. The matches represent fire and the transformation of these emotions experienced when we change inherited behavior.
Mars Tokyo Figure Confronting Demons Ceramic In keeping with the show’s theme I chose a figure chased by demons in the black abyss of depression, with blue spiraling downward. Diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder at 21, I have chased these demons my whole adult life. My design metaphorically represents that struggle.
Andrea Uravitch Looking for the Light Mixed Media; constructed out of chicken wire and hand printed textiles. Piece mounted on a wooden frame. The “Night Journey” can be a stressful par t of the day because you are faced with your inner thoughts that can spiral down even into chaos. But, a new day brings light and color and hopefully a new star t. The spiral symbolizes a journey and the color green symbolizes rebir th. Both have been impor tant to me.
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Patricia Underwood A Place That Can’t Be Seen Mixed Media This piece is inspired by three separate major diseases I overcame in the last twelve years. It represents a place one goes when enduring a major health crisis, a place that no one can see, although they see you physically. It’s a spiritual, emotional place you go to be tested and transformed. The illness forces you to give up things (i.e. self-image, strength, pride), hand them over as if being robbed and then confront what seems a devastation. You learn to cherish what’s left. BOX LID The box is a map of your life, pre-to-post transformation. The rocks on the lid represent you and all the people in your life. The black hole is the entrance to the transformation. Like a snake arm, it finds you among the crowd, draws you away and down into its ‘place that can’t be seen’. Eventually this arm brings you out, bearing no resemblance to what you were going in. INSIDE BOX You enter now at the top, through the hole in your life. This map of transformation is dark and appears very emotionally cold. Because others can see you, but not where you are, you feel sad and lonely. The work which lies ahead has not dawned on you yet.
A Place That Can’t Be Seen, Inside
Tired and sick, you find a hole in which to crawl. It seems small and empty, but safe. A good place to stop over and rest before hurrying back to your normal life. Ah, but it holds you back with a gravitational force from which you do not have the strength to break away. And you stay - for at times what feels like maybe forever. You see healthy images of yourself before this nightmare began and imagine meeting up with them again. As more time passes they stop appearing and you mourn their loss. Appreciating them is visceral. You so want what you were. Then when enough time passes, stock is taken of what’s left and a new relationship begins. Acceptance and love of this new version of yourself comes slowly. You own the incredible strength in its making and wisdom it has brought.
Jenny Walton Soup and Stitches embroidery hoops, gessoed canvas, thread, graphite I chose to work with the acts of healing both, physically and creatively, through my many surgeries. The acts of binding wounds, wrapping them, and patiently watching someone else’s stitching hold me together. The warm soup is key in this piece, as it was often something that was easy to make, hold, and eat while awkwardly propped in some way to help promote a faster recovery. I still love soup.
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Leslie Weinberger Untitled Mixed Media
Ellyn Weiss Leaky Vessel wire and plastidip Some years ago, I experienced a time of great grief and pain. My family and friends - including some people I had not previously seen as friends - pulled me back into life and it wasn’t always a pleasant task for them. I learned to ask for help and to be willing to accept it with some grace. I also learned that we are all leaky vessels; there will be a time in every person’s life when they will need the people around them to be their saviors.
Helen Zughaib Red Shoe Gouache on wood Remembering the day my long “night journey” began, breaking the curfew, running to the car, with my parents and sisters, leaving home, getting to a safer place, finally to be evacuated from the civil war in Lebanon. We ran through the deathly quiet streets of Beirut, hearing only the bombs and gunfire, knowing snipers were watching, trying to keep up with my parents. My middle sister lost one of her small red shoes. We turned around to see the shoe on the curb across the street, debating whether or not to risk going back and picking it up before we reached our car. Until now, years later, I am not sure what we did. In my vessel, the little red shoe is fished out of the sea, and placed in the boat, hopefully to be worn as a pair once again.
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Josh Whipkey Dispatched, 2017 Copper [in an instant] The world stood still. I heard myself gasp. A disembodied voice uttered words. I cannot repeat them. A burst of white light enveloped me from behind, but was held to the peripheries. It was pushed back by the blackness in front of me, a blackness that seemed to issue from me like a shadow. I pulled my hand back, and held it against my body knowing that par ts of it were on the floor. The images of what I saw were immediately redacted, swallowed by the shadow. I walked toward the light that shone through the cracks in the door. I opened the door to the outside, and called for the angels who were working in the garden… [a vessel for healing] This is the first ar twork I’ve made about the accident. It’s been almost three years… I wanted the process of making the vessel to become a metaphor for the struggle of living with/recovering from trauma. Copper hardens with each hammer blow. It can be softened with heat, but I chose not to. Eventually it cracked. This is the healing process. Hold the bowl up to the light, and notice the shadow that pushes the light to the peripheries, see the cracks. I remember the cracks in the door that led to the light that held the angels that came to my rescue.
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Index of artists Lina Alattar, 14 Jennifer Anderson, 14 Kasse Andrews-Weller, 14 Sondra N. Arkin, 15 Rushern Baker IV, 15 Julia Mae Bancroft, 15 Marilyn Banner, 16 Joan Belmar, 16 Michael Booker, 16 Lennox Campello, 17 Sally Canzoneri, 18 Elana Casey, 17 Mei Mei Chang, 19 Hsin-Hsi Chen, 18 Schroeder Cherry, 19 Vasundhara (Vachu) Chilakamarri, 19 Travis Childers, 22 Mara Clawson, 22 Irene Clouthier, 22 Ellen Cornett, 23 Lama Dajani, 23 Brian Dailey, 24 Richard Dana, 23 Delna Dastur, 25 Ana U Davis, 24 Rachel Debuque, 25 Rex Delafkaran, 26 Nehemiah Dixon III, 26 Jim Doran, 27 Spencer Dormitzer, 27
Sarah Eargle, 28 Mary Early, 28 Cheryl Edwards, 28 Lauren Emeritz, 29 Heloisa Escudero, 29 Lisa Farrell, 32 Gregory Ferrand, 32 Mary Freedman, 33 Emily Fussner, 33 Ric Garcia, 33 Mark Garrett, 34 Janis Goodman, 34 Stefan Greene, 35 Matthew Grimes, 34 Adam Hager, 35 Mia Halton, 36 Mansoora Hassan, 37 Caroline Hatfield, 37 Sean Hennessey, 38 Jeffery Herrity, 38 Leslie Holt. 39 Jackie Hoysted, 39 Aaron Hughes (with Ehren Tool), 42 Melissa Ichiuji, 42 Mar ty Ittner, 42 Charles Jean Pierre, 43 Wayson Jones, 43 Jessica Kallista, 43 Sally Kauffman, 44 Don Kimes, 44
JT Kirkland, 44 Micheline Klagsbrun, 45 Catherine Kleeman, 45 Regan Lake, 45 KeyHan Lee, 36 Kyujin Lee, 46 Freda Lee-McCann, 46 Liz Lescault, 46 Erin Lisette, 47 Nathan Loda, 47 Steve Loya, 47 Tsedaye Makonnen. 50 Jenee Mateer, 50 Carolina Mayorga, 50 David Morgenstein, 51 Olivia Morrow, 51 Kristine Moss, 52 Minna Newman Nathanson, 53 Nahid Navab, 52 Nasrin Navab, 52 Thien Nguyen, 53 Shanti Norris, 54 Sarah O’Donoghue, 54 Anthony Palliparambil, Jr., 54 John Paradiso, 55 Nara Park, 55 Judith Peck, 58 Lyric Prince, 55 Susana Raab, 58 Carol Reed, 58
Mojdeh Rezaeipour, 59 Jamea Richmond Edwards, 59 Lisa Rosenstein, 60 Jac Rust, 59 Nancy Sausser, 60 Gretchen Schermerhorn, 60 Alma Selimovic, 61 Samantha Sethi (with Andy Holtin), 61 Alexandra Sherman, 61 Ellen Sinel, 62 Anne C Smith, 62 Susan Stacks, 62 Hillary Steel, 63 Dafna Steinberg, 63 Anneliese Sullivan, 63 Lisa Marie Thalhamer, 64 Mars Tokyo, 64 Patricia Underwood, 65 Andrea Uravitch, 64 Jenny Walton, 65 Leslie Weinberger, 66 Ellyn Weiss, 66 Mary Welch Higgins, 39 Josh Whipkey, 67 Helen Zughaib, 66
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Acknowledgements Smith Center staff: Spencer Dormitzer, Gallery Director Deirdre Darden, Exhibition and Benefit Coordinator, Gallery Assistant Caroline Whiting, Gallery Intern Erin Price-Schaber t, Development Manager Kellie Johnson, Operations Manager Casey Bauer, Development Assistant Emily Fussner, Exhibition and Benefit Assistant Alexandra Arkoian, Gallery Volunteer Designer: Grace Toulotte unitedbylovedesign.com Photographer: Tom Wolff Printer: Mount Royal Printing Art Installation: Ray Fitzgerald
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Alchemical Vessels planning committee: Helen Frederick Ellyn Weiss Tim Fleschner Dolly Vehlow Janice Marks