Ceramics

Hybrids

Melanistic Farmer, 2019, Custom clay body (squirrel and acorns) ^6 ox, crawl glaze, layered colored engobes, Red earthenware (pedestal) ^04 ox, H. 11, W. 4.5, D. 9 inches.

2025 Farmer, 2019, Custom stoneware, engobes, glaze, ^6 ox., H. 8, W. 11, D. 4 inches. Homage to Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez, the co-founders of the United Farm Workers (UFW). This little farmer unwittingly propagates the growth of oak trees, which produce oxygen, while our species clear-cuts forests to plant monoculture crops sprayed with harmful pesticides and fertilizers.

Mayan Rubber Seer, 2020, Red earthenware, terra sigillata, manganese and copper wash, ^05 ox., H. 10, W. 13, D. 4.5 inches. This Mayan squirrel deity from 750 BCE foresees the destruction of its forest in the industrial era and gently heeds a warning to adopt sustainable methods before it’s too late.

Melanistic Farmer II, 2019, Stoneware, ^9 reduction, H. 17, W. 15, D. 13 inches. This squirrel-human hybrid carries an oxygen tank on its back. What does our future hold when deforestation and intensive chemical farming practices have reached a pinnacle? Will our bodies adapt and produce more melanin to cope with stronger UV radiation from a diminished ozone layer? Will our lungs be able to absorb enough oxygen in a chemical-laden environment? What will 2025 look like?

Avarice: The root of global destruction, 2020, Custom clay, glaze, multiple ^6 firings, H. 9.5, W. 10.5, D. 13 inches. The global economy we know as capitalism has created an insatiable gluttonous desire for precious resources in the name of profit. Indigenous people around the world recognized the limits of our environment and took only what was needed. When will we unite and recognize the capacity of our beautiful world and ensure there are enough resources for 7 generations to come just as American Indians of Turtle Island realized? Homage to indigenous ways of life and sustainable agriculture. Acorns and other nuts were used to make flour to feed families.

modern natives series

My current series of canine stirrup spout vessels re-envisions pre-Columbian ceremonial vessels and seeks to exalt the overlooked immigrants of our country by portraying their beauty and rawness in custom made clays. Each indigenous descendant has a story to tell.

Head of Household (M.C.), 2019, Custom stoneware, ^6 ox., H. 15, W. 14, D. 9 inches. Homage to Maria, who works two jobs to support her family. Aztec descendant. (For MFA Thesis: Of Flesh and Fruit)

Mirna, Pipil and Maya descendant, 2019, Custom stoneware, ^6 ox., H. 14, W. 16, D. 9 inches. Female stirrup spout vessel. Homage to my mother who escaped the violent military dictatorship in El Salvador that persecuted indigenous farmer unions, student protest groups, the clergy, and other democratic reformers between 1932 and 1992 (Schmidt 20). The right-wing military dictators that plagued El Salvador were descendants of Spanish colonists who first invaded Cuzcatlán in 1524. Pedro de Alvarado claimed the region as part of the Captaincy General of Guatemala and renamed it, El Salvador, which translates to "The Savior." This designation was part of the etymological hypocrisy used to cover up the extreme violence used to subjugate the indigenous Pipil civilization. (For MFA Thesis: Of Flesh and Fruit).

Abuelos, Pipil and Maya descendants, 2018, Red earthenware, burnished terra sigillata, glaze, ^05 ox., H. 9, W. 10, D. 5 inches. Male and female stirrup spout vessel. Homage to my grandparents who fled the Salvadoran US / “Civil” Proxy War, a violent military dictatorship in El Salvador that persecuted indigenous farmer unions, student protest groups, the clergy, and other democratic reformers between 1932 and 1992. (For MFA Thesis: Of Flesh and Fruit).

SOLD. Private collection.

Collateral Damage, Maya descendant, Guatemala, 2019-20, Custom clay, H. 11.5, W. 11, D. 31 inches, (above) and her counterpart Grieving Father and Daughter, Guatemalan refugees (below) were made in response to the US’ actions of defending an illegitimate border that should not exist in the first place. The US-Mexican border became a bulwark for the people who migrated freely from the South to the North before Europeans arrived and claimed their land. In 1819, an invisible territorial boundary was invented in the Adams–Onís Treaty between the United States and Spain, in complete disregard of American Indian sovereignty. Collateral Damage affronts viewers with the human cost of militarizing borders. This fictitious mother, who perished scrambling over the barbed wire wall, symbolizes the unaccounted immigrant deaths that occur each day. (For MFA Thesis: Of Flesh and Fruit).

Grieving Father and Daughter, Guatemalan refugees, 2020, Custom low-shrink clay, glaze, stained glass, LED lamp, H. 14, L. 18, D. 10.25 inches. (For MFA Thesis: Of Flesh and Fruit).