When you are gone

Artists

• Marjorie Dial

Statement

Opening Reception: Saturday, November 9, from 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm. Please RSVP to info@pdxcontemporaryart.com.

Marjorie Dial
When you are gone

When you are gone arose from a year of intensive studio practice in which I grappled with the certainty of loss. I could not shake an image of full sails at night. Persistent and insistent, they overtook my practice and posed questions to which the attendant works respond: how will I find you? how will you know me? how long do we have to wait? The sculptural vessels—beacons, planets, spell bowls—offer up maps, modes of navigation, in response.
 
The sailing ships are drawn loosely from Scottish fishing vessels called smacks that ran in the Western Isles, a place of my ancestry and daydreams. The ceramics are rooted in historic vessel with a through-line to North Carolina pots. These works continue to push against the rule-bound lineage in clay, eschewing perfectionism and productivity, embracing vulnerability and chance. I leaned into honesty in the material, exposing seams, adding back remnant pieces, and pushing melting points. I take deep pleasure in experimentation in the studio and fire materials that are intimate, specific, and unpredictable: ash from the woodstove, gemstones collected by my mother, broken glass from wine bottles.

The recent, catastrophic storm in Western North Carolina, where I run a residency and have roots, shifted the context in urgent, immediate ways: flooding, loss, recovery. A percentage of sales from the show will be donated to the Craft Emergency Response Fund (CERF+) to aid artists affected by Hurricane Helene.