Derivations brought together eleven ceramic artists who studied at Indiana University Bloomington. Each approached clay differently, and the work ranged from figurative pieces and vessels to slip-cast work, ceramic installation, and time-based media.

I use clay to work through emotions quickly, and to imagine at a small scale what I might build larger. The three pieces I showed were all clay, all exploring the mess of being human in the midst of others, and all in conversation with other artists.

My Own Private Purgatory references Frederic Remington’s stampedes and Rodin’s Gates of Hell. Conceptually, it was a reaction to the loss of rights for women around the world, and to my anger about it.

Moving Mountains was one of my first riffs on Greek wrestling sculpture, and it is also loosely influenced by one of Remington’s pieces.

The third piece went the farthest afield. I tried to abstract and confuse the bodies even more, and to consider bodies as meat, in the spirit of Carolee Schneemann’s Meat Joy.