2018-2021, 13' x 18' x 8" (Variable), Media: Mixed Media, Firing Process: Low-fire
My enthusiasm for exploring the nature of objectness and the aura of association were the catalysts for creating Every Day I Think of You—a collection of 365 articles that each connect through recollection to a specific person. The objects that make up this piece are specific to my remembrances but can become stimulants for a viewer’s memories. The connection to others through a thing’s capacity to contain a memory and our human ability to condense such a variety of experiences into seemingly mundane mementos is what continues to grab my imagination.
2018-2021, 13' x 18' x 8" (detail), Media: Earthenware / Terracotta, Firing Process: Low-fire, Oxidation, Surface: Unglazed
My enthusiasm for exploring the nature of objectness and the aura of association were the catalysts for creating Every Day I Think of You—a collection of 365 articles that each connect through recollection to a specific person. The objects that make up this piece are specific to my remembrances but can become stimulants for a viewer’s memories. The connection to others through a thing’s capacity to contain a memory and our human ability to condense such a variety of experiences into seemingly mundane mementos is what continues to grab my imagination. Photo: Virginia MOCA
2023, 8' x 9' x 8", Media: Porcelain, Firing Process: High-fire, Reduction
Things Fall Away— I find the connection to others through a thing’s capacity to contain a memory profound. This piece is a portrait of my relationship with my father, the objects represent, as the title states, the things that fall away as we move through life. There is a distortion to my rendering, the way that memories distort, and with a lack of colour these objects begin to wilt into the whiteness of the wall. Making this work allowed me to focus on my relationship with my father, but in sharing the piece I find connections with others through long-forgotten objects and shared reminiscences.
2023, 8 x 9 x 8" (detail), Media: Porcelain, Firing Process: High-fire, Reduction, Surface: Unglazed
Things Fall Away— I find the connection to others through a thing’s capacity to contain a memory profound. This piece is a portrait of my relationship with my father; the objects represent, as the title states, the things that fall away as we move through life. There is a distortion to my rendering, the way that memories distort, and with a lack of colour, these objects begin to wilt into the whiteness of the wall. Making this work allowed me to focus on my relationship with my father, but in sharing the piece, I find connections with others through long-forgotten objects and shared reminiscences.
2023, 8' x 9' x 8", Media: Porcelain, Firing Process: High-fire, Reduction, Surface: Unglazed
Things Fall Away— I find the connection to others through a thing’s capacity to contain a memory profound. This piece is a portrait of my relationship with my father, the objects represent, as the title states, the things that fall away as we move through life. There is a distortion to my rendering, the way that memories distort, and with a lack of colour these objects begin to wilt into the whiteness of the wall. Making this work allowed me to focus on my relationship with my father, but in sharing the piece I find connections with others through long-forgotten objects and shared reminiscences.
2021, 8’ x 5’ x 5”, Media: Earthenware / Terracotta, Mixed Media, Firing Process: Electric, Low-fire, Mid-range, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze, Glazed, Lustre, Non-ceramic
2021, 8’ x 5’ x 5”, Media: Earthenware / Terracotta, Firing Process: Low-fire, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze, Glazed, Lustre, Non-ceramic
2021, 8’ x 5’ x 5”, Media: Earthenware / Terracotta, Mixed Media, Firing Process: Low-fire, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze, Glazed, Lustre, Non-ceramic
2021, 4”x 3.5” x 3.5”, Media: Earthenware / Terracotta, Firing Process: Electric, Low-fire, Oxidation, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze, Glazed, Pattern
2021, 3.5”x 4.5” x 3.5”, Media: Earthenware / Terracotta, Firing Process: Electric, Low-fire, Oxidation, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze, Glazed, Pattern
Artist Statement
My work can be separated into three main types: figures/tableaux; objects/collections and pottery. These three categories, although visually distinct, are for me linked by a connection in each to narrative. Accounts from a parent, a teacher, a movie, or a dream—fragments exaggerated or diminished twisted together in an order that corresponds with the flux of how things are remembered.
Bio
Pattie Chalmers grew up and went to art school in Winnipeg, Canada. She received her BFA in printmaking from the University of Manitoba in 1994, and her MFA in ceramics from the University of Minnesota in 2001. Since graduating she has exhibited in group exhibitions on five continents, in six countries and in thirty-four states. She has had six solo exhibitions in the past five years, most recently the exhibitions The Mudmaid Museum at the Sheldon Art Center in St. Louis and Imperfect Ramblings at Merwin Gallery at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois.
Chalmers has taught at the University of Minnesota, Ohio University and Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, where she is currently a full professor and head of graduate studies. (Chalmers might be a little compulsive, and she definitely likes to laugh at her own jokes).