The Palo Alto Art Center bustled with life on Friday night as art enjoyers appreciated local artists’ dazzling ceramics for the Clay Sustains art exhibition. Kelp forests, beehives, mycelium, coral, and a whole host of other creative depictions of nature dominated the scene.The sculptures ranged from starkly minimalist to unbelievably complex and colorful, catching the viewer’s eye through passion and creativity.
Numerous artists were in attendance, eager to chat with attendees about their experiences with the craft. Visitors milled about, enjoying wines from the local Comartin Cellars and live music while perusing the various arts and crafts stations.
For many of the artists in attendance, this exhibition provided an opportunity to present their unique messages regarding nature. One artist, Leslie Plato Smith, used her pieces to share her concern for the environment in the face of human activity. Her work “Arctic Kelp” was inspired by her experiences in California’s incredible kelp forests and the threats they face.
“I went to UC Santa Barbara, so I used to dive a little bit into the kelp forest down there. They’re so full of light and they’re so beautiful,” Smith said. “So this [art] is turning California kelp into Arctic kelp and bleaching it in a similar way [to coral], because the Arctic is the place that’s heating up the fastest on the planet.”
Smith’s other art installation is a colorful set of “bee hotels,” or pre-made nests for native solitary bees. “I wanted to build houses that the bees would like to live in, that look more like a garden, and we could save the bees and keep the pollination going,” Smith said. “California has 1400 different species of native bees. That’s more than any other state in the nation. We have the largest and the smallest bees. And we really need to fight for them.”
Smith remarked on the universal appeal of ceramic art and the versatile experience of working with it. “It’s one of the first things that humans just had to make art with,” Smith said. “I love that it’s straight out of Mother Earth. They were not pre-planned, the clay and I just worked together.”
Artist Christopher Fortin was inspired to use expertly-textured clay to resemble wood, demonstrating nature’s power. His “Agents of Erosion” series consists of three busts representing three facets of natural erosion: wind, fire, and water.
“My pieces are showing signs of wear and degradation. I’m often exploring this idea through the source of wood. These are all ceramic pieces, but I like the idea of working with wood. It’s a beautiful, very robust material, but under the right circumstances, it does degrade. Showing this fragility, but still, this resistance. That’s what I’m exploring in these pieces,” Fortin said.
Artists also used a variety of media to bring out unique interactions between the elements of their art. Artist Tamara Murphy’s “Tension Sculpture” series explored how tiny threads of waxed twine could keep an otherwise unstable tower of stacked clay discs in perfect balance.
“I find that with a lot of my work, the meaning develops over time. I don’t start with a clear vision of why I’m doing something. I could force an explanation of their meaning, but I just like to leave it up to audience interpretation,” Murphy said, mirroring a common sentiment regarding the discovery process associated with ceramic artwork.
Engaging, social, and beautiful, the Clay Sustains exhibition provided an opportunity for artists and attendees to share thoughts while appreciating some of the most thoughtful and impressive ceramic pieces Palo Alto has to offer.
