2023–2024
Medium: Stoneware clay
Dimensions: 11.00" × 16.00"
Price: Price on Request
Description: Sand Castle is the second house in the What Is a Home? series. This house is based on kids at play on the beach making small versions of large castles. I thought about what kind of structure a younger version of myself would like to build out of sand. I had one month of free time before my final semester in my ceramics BFA program and 100 lbs of white stoneware clay that I mixed myself. I began to ask myself what kind of fun shapes would make a cool-looking castle shape. The Sandcastle started at the base with the same shape as the walls: one big rounded blob. I used large coils and paddling techniques to build the walls and allowed the organic shape to reveal itself to me. I used the paddles to compact the clay and create the smooth and rounded edges. The textures I added to the clay come from wooden paddles, local rocks, and tree bark. To add the texture, I would go into a meditative state, just focusing on small sections of the walls to create moments of texture that stand out in some sections and blend in others. The roof of the sandcastle is made from one tile and has holes and bright glaze added to draw in more light. The various windows around the castle give the viewer different angles to look into or across the sculpture. Sandcastle was wood-fired in an American-style train kiln at the University of Edinboro in Pennsylvania in 2024. The wood ash mixed with the glaze on the roof and pulled it down along the walls to add more stunning visual texture.
