Portfolio: Masks
"The Mask, simply as a face, comes to express the solar and energetic aspects of the life-process."
J. E. Cirlot
Dictionary of Symbols
In this series of collage incorporating mixed media, a mask is a common element - a simple sculptured face which suggests the universal or archetypal. As a focal point these raku fired stoneware masks embody and symbolically represent the human experience.
The masks provide an immediate form for identification and entry into the work. Viewing these collages allows us to perceive aspects of ourselves and our experiences through the cosmic face.
Each collage presents an opportunity to explore another facet of our place in the natural world, while simultaneously alluding to the unexplainable, the intangible, and the creative powers that fill our existence. They are suggestive of one's duality in the natural world; one's connectedness to it; and one's ability to observe, sustain and ultimately be transformed by it. In their simplicity the masks are evocative of the infinite, the inexplicable, the revered, and the serene of life. Juxtaposed with carefully selected mundane objects: stones, buttons, feathers, twigs, fibers - they represent the sacred, the intriguing, and the fleeting moments of our existence.
