TITLE: Connection Stones
DIMENSIONS: Height: 0.75in.
Width: 1.25in.
MEDIUMS: Clay from my Childhood home in Vermont.
DESCRIPTION:
Perfect for any pocket, palm, or person! I love handing these connection stones out almost like a business card wherever I go. The purpose of these is to extend my backyard clay to as many people as possible while I still have some left. This is one of the simplest and smallest forms I've ever created. They came in response to realizing the days that I could continue to connect us all through this clay, the earth I was raised on for so much longer. I wanted to make something that was not only affordable so everyone could get the chance to have a piece of home in theirs while using a minimal amount of clay. I hope you enjoy these connection stones as this clay continues to connect all of us across this big, old, rock.
I am down to my last bucket of clay from my childhood home and forest back in Vermont. Making with this material, now that it’s limited in quantity, has become incredibly challenging. This is the earth I was raised on, the fertile grounds in which I was raised and the forest in which it was housed often felt more like home than the walls of my bedroom. So, making my following with this material and being known as TikTok’s “Mud Boy” was an honor and felt like an honest reflection of me. Translating who I am to an online space and through my visual work has always been challenging for me but this material I always felt did the hard work for me. Losing that has felt like I have lost my artistic intention and I’ve felt lost. Anytime I picture this material now I am incredibly intentional with my usage as I know each piece made is one of the last times that I will be able to breathe life back into the forest to show the world how beautiful it can be, the same one that gave so much breathe and life to me. The price of this work is a reflection of not only its emotional value, but also in the fact that I have now lived with this mud for a year and transported it over 1,000 miles, and that was after it was carried a mile though the forest by hand.
