Residencies

Residencies to date…

2022-23 Centre for Studies in Religion and Society (CSRS), at Uvic, Victoria, BC

2020 Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at UBC, Vancouver, BC

2019 Centre d’art Rozynski (CAR) Barnston Ouest, Québec

Residencies

What began as my desire to make ceramic funeral urns with quiet beauty is growing into an interdisciplinary passion for funeral objects, traditions and practices from other cultures, reaching back as far as human prehistory. This passion leads me to seek artist in residence opportunities that inspire a growing collaboration with experts and resources in anthropological and spiritual traditions, as well as in ceramic techniques. My sculptural work fosters an engagement with these traditions and awakens new, contemplative reflections on the universal reality of death.
Textural detail from the « Jomon » urn

The subject of death, which in our culture has been virtually emptied of meaning, beauty and ritual, has historically been the focus for artistic excellence and profound symbolism in most cultures. Where the impermanence of physical life meets the desire to render unshakeable the remembrance of that person, the ceramic medium is ideal since it remains permanent, even after thousands of years buried in the ground. Reflecting on the symbolism of the funeral vessel of great artistic value, created in order never to be seen again, can itself be very rich.

« La larme » from the collection « Profils de deuil »

Centre for Studies in Religion and Society, Uvic, Victoria BC, 2022-2023

Pentimenti: Ceramic Funeral Urns as Biographies of Spiritual Homecomings

Through the creation of a series of unique ceramic funeral vessels, my project at the CSRS explores personal stories of returning home at the end of life to abandoned or forbidden roots of belief and spiritual practice. The concept of pentimento came to my attention as I read the first chapter of Religious Understandings of a Good Death in Hospice Palliative Care, a book produced by the CSRS. There it was, the focus for my research and creation in this residency. The word pentimento is taken from the Italian, pentirsi, to repent. It is used in oil painting to refer to the reappearance over time of original elements that the artist tried to obliterate by overpainting. It is that same phenomenon which I propose to express through multiple ceramic surface treatments and glaze techniques, to express individual biographies from a variety of cultural and spiritual backgrounds. Some of these pieces speak of experiences of the good death, to be sure. Others speak of spiritual pain and resiliency at the end of life, particularly in the wake of collective trauma.

To read the biographies click here.

Jampa 2 : Au moment de la mort

22 x 14 inches, stoneware, engobes, glazes
Willem : La révélation

13 x 6 inches, stoneware, engobe
Greg : La libération

15 x 8 inches, stoneware, glazes

Ruth : La confiance

12 x 8 x 3 inches, stoneware, engobe, glaze
Jim : Ulu urn

12 x 12 x 5 inches, stoneware, glazes
Robert : L'icône cachée 3

9 x 6 inches, stoneware, silkscreened pigment, glazes

It speaks of the character of the CSRS that, as a scholarly research centre composed each year of twenty or so research fellows, it also wants to hear the expressive languages and voices of artists. The centre’s focus is on multidisciplinary reflection on important themes which engage religion and society. I feel privileged to be there.

For more information go to the website of CSRS here. Or check out the video on my blog!

I’m grateful to many for their moral encouragement and to the following institutions for financial support: Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria; Sacred Arts Trust of the Anglican Foundation of Canada.

Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver BC

For three months, ending with the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, I was ceramic artist in residence at MOA, the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver at UBC. This was an extraordinary opportunity to study the wide variety of ceramics and other mediums of funeral objects in the museum’s collections on a daily basis. The pieces I created were inspired by ancient Neolithic and Etruscan ossuaries as well as by classic Asian forms and ceramic technique.