From the Sky Gypsies Studios

In many cultures the creation of pottery involves a spiritual aspect and the finished product is not only an expression of the individual potter and each piece acquires a spirit of its own. But what happens when the ceramic is broken and discarded, its pieces scattered, when it becomes household trash? It no longer has a story to tell, it is no longer a reflection of the potters hands, it's spirit is lost.

Household trash tells a great deal about people, especially if relationships can be recreated from carefully collected and documented trash. But when the detritus of peoples lives has no context what information remains except descriptive? How big, what colors, what materials, what paints were used, and what designs appear on each piece. But even a statistical analysis is questionable since information on the spacial relationships is not available. In more general terms, how is a new story created, how does the piece gain a new context? In other words how do you make these pieces of household trash live again.

It is quite simple, a collaborative effort across space and time. A collaboration between the potters who created the ceramics and Artists today. By recycling and recombining the fragments to express a different idea a new story and context is created.

These pieces of art represent this collaboration and express the desire to give new meaning and life to material that would otherwise be forgotten.

Reverse Stratigraphy
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The title is descriptive. The piece at the base is younger than the top partial reconstruction.

Some Assembly Required

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All the fragments belong to the same original ceramic piece. During reconstruction one of the fitted pieces refused to fit when glued. It stubbornly remained slightly separate and was left that way inspiring the title. The other small pieces, although belonging to the same ceramic do not fit on the reconstruction.

In and Out Patterns in Mimbres

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A fragment of a classic Mimbres black on white geometic bowl. Painted on the interior it differs from the fragment at the base, also Mimbres, but where the decoration appeared on the outside of the original ceramic, inspiring the title In and Out Patterns in Mimbres.

This is old trash that has been recycled and as such requires a disclaimer. All materials were recovered from private land by the landowner over a period of about 20 years and do not violate state or national laws regarding antiquities.