Metamorphosis was an expansive experience and humbling collection to create. Although a small collection with just a few art pieces, it encapsulates much growth. 

In this collection I experimented with bringing more sculptural elements to my work, I added a green glaze to my color wheel. I experimented with incorporating multiple types of clay into a single piece, allowing what usually exists separately to exist together. This collection brought me both happiness and frustration as any change and growth will. 

Throughout the creation of this collection I felt fragile, because of the changes I was making in my life and my work. I was striving for a more balanced life, both inside and outside of the studio, searching for new ways to express myself as I had admittedly grown bored of the creation process that usually excites me. I had stripped myself of any “normal” routine in an already routineless life and felt like I was floating in a vast sea of possibilities, unsure of what shore I hoped to land on. 

That fragility translated to my pieces, and I experienced many “accidents,” many breaks and bumps, a broken wing, and a broken leaf in need of repair. My work stretched outside the confines of a vase, as I stretched out of the confines of what I had grown used to. Things became more vulnerable, my artwork more “breakable” and did it break.

With every fractured piece I had to make the decision is this piece actually broken? Is it no good anymore? And my answer always landed on, no of course not. It’s still beautiful, I’m still proud of it, it’s still worthy. It will be glued back together, the crack ornamented with gold. A new detail was added. I decided it was important to repair the cracks because that’s what I would want done for me during times I have felt cracked or broken myself. We are fragile, we break, we chip a wing but we will always be stronger for it. How we repair our breaks is how we define our character. And just as I would not want to be seen as “ruined” because of a crack, I do not wish my artwork to be seen that way either. We deserve grace, time to heal, for our wounds to be adorned with gold. Those scars are celebrated as proof that we can make it through hard times. Why would I not highlight the “faults and failures” I experienced while growing, it is proof of growth.