Sadly the ceramic studio has been closed since mid-March. I was just a few days away from finishing these two sculptures when we were ordered by the district not to return. 
The working title of this first piece was “The Doors of Perception”. Parts of the interior structure are visible through a series of openings. The title was inspired by the Aldous Huxley book about the author’s experiences taking the psychedelic drug mescaline. Some folks have said the sculpture reminds them of ant colonies. I thought it might be good as an outdoor garden sculpture – providing a safe shelter where bees could make their nests and breed. Maybe now once it’s fired and finished I will call it Girl Interrupted?
The working title of this piece was Binge. I was thinking a lot about Masoud as it was in the month of March two years ago that I found out that he had been dead for nearly three years. At that time I had just started taking classes at ELAC Ceramics. Same as when I was in my early twenties, working with clay helped me heal emotional wounds and transformed my life. Masoud loved the band Gorillas. We listened to a lot of Gorillas together and I never listened to their music until I met him. I became a fan. There was a young guy in the studio who was always playing Gorillas songs on his phone while he was working. The song To Binge is one of my favorites. It’s such a hauntingly beautiful song. Impossible love? Drug addiction? Cau-au-au-aught again. Maybe now I will title the sculpture Coitus Interruptus?
I ran into my ceramics teacher at Trader Joe’s the other day and he said that he would save my work and fire it. It’s possible that we may not be back in the studio until Spring 2021. Seems like forever. I also have 2 more completed pieces that have been slowly drying since December 2019. They are loaded in the kiln but have not been fired yet. I don’t have a photo of the pieces in the kiln but I have this photo from the day I finished building them. These are each around 40 inches tall. They will shrink 10 percent after firing. As of yet they are untitled. But just now in my head I hear the words Sodom and Gomorrah. So maybe this is what I will call them.
Many thanks to my ceramics teacher Chris Turk for all of his support!
Margie Schnibbe 