In Tender Downshift, I present a collection of 3 bodies of works that explore my relationship to design, language and contradiction. The deep introspection inherently experienced through the pandemic offered me an opportunity to essentially downshift, allowing for a questioning and play my previous pace of life didn’t make available or rather I didn’t know how to create for myself. I had the privilege of being a student to the late and great artist Carlos Villa at the San Francisco Art Institute where he embedded in his students to always ask ourselves “The Who and The What For?”. How I answered that question, my approach to making art and my relationship to my art practice experienced and is still experiencing a shift. The three bodies of work I present in Tender Downshift contain research, eulogies, chistes, subverted vexillology, and quantum hugs in the form of functional ceramics. All pieces have a deep consideration for design as a language.
15 ‘ x 17’
2023
45, 5 inches strips of quilted repurposed textiles from former flag projects and textiles sources from local Charleston artists.