A Ceramics Artist Channels These Divisive Times into Works of Art
– Los Angeles Times | By Elizabeth Aquino –
Her ceramics were once strictly functional, but Moye Thompson now weaves pebbles, twigs, wire, paper and words into clay, rendering unique works of art that quite literally animate home spaces.
“I’ve always loved working with clay,” she says, “but the day I realized I could add other things to the mix — twigs, pebbles, words, beautiful words — the skies opened up.”
Rumba Gallery in Santa Monica will be showing Thompson’s work through April 10. It marks the first instalment of her series “Sweet Land of Liberty” and is inspired by the words of notable Americans and the U.S. Constitution.
Poetry is too often limited to books, and documents like the Constitution are not front-and-center to our daily routines, so Thompson is passionate about bringing words into people’s lives in very real ways. Included in the series are word balls, or “spirit orbs,” etched with famous quotations and poetry. They range from palm- to basketball-size, at home as both statement and gentle inspiration.
In increasingly divisive and troubled times, Thompson says she is turning to words and channeling them into art, focusing on the best of our country’s ideals, and bringing these “beautiful documents and words into the home and daily lives of families,” she says.