Marcie Schwartzman - Fiber and Clay

I work primarily with mid-fired stoneware. I am especially fond of ceramic glaze and want to use all of the possibilities it offers. Minerals (from rocks) comprise glazes, so it is rocks that yield all these mottled effects. As in nature, what grows on rocks is organic, and I use organic materials (fiber and fabric) in cooperation with my ceramic forms to produce a complete sculpture. I took permission to do this from Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party, in which she used ceramic place setting and organized groups of women to render her designs in all the classic “women’s arts”. You will see those arts here, embroidery, knitting, crochet, sewing.

Why do we enjoy looking at rocks and stones? Gerard Manley Hopkins, in his poem, ”Pied Beauty” says, “Glory be to God for dappled things!” In my work, I am attempting to find the things we enjoy about rocks and the lichen and moss that grow on them and emphasize those. I want to harness that fascination with texture and pattern and variegated color.