Glennis Phillips

Union, Oregon

Title: Crappie in a Vase

Year of Creation: 2003

Glaze: Ash and waste glazes

Clay Body: Stoneware

Dimensions: Height 21 inches, Width 16 inches

Artist's Statement: After a time of decay comes the turning point. The powerful light that has been banished returns...I Ching.

My work in clay and photography is a powerful, spiritual antidote for loss of center. It has been a journey along the "four levels of competence: 1) unconscious incompetence, 2) conscious incompetence, 3) conscious competence and 4) unconscious competence," per Professor Emeritus of Art, Tom Dimond. It is a way of being and learning. My work is a way to work at self-transformation through self-discovery and consciousness expansion. The practices are never finished nor left behind-what I once thought simple is more complex; the complex more simple. In the past, I have not cared terribly much about my own opinions. I found them to be too tiresome and too predictable. But even when I try to keep them out of my work, others would find them lingering there. I have tried to approach my art with a sense of humor, and always with a great love of processes of making art. My hands and spirit reach out though my work to touch the observer and user in an aura humility and spontaneity of life to create an aesthetic gratification that nurtures the human experience.

But is there more? The question lingers. My search continues, but I find not answers. Mary Wakins stated, "I will speak in secret to my soul, and in friendly conversation I will ask her what I should like to know. No stranger shall be present; we will talk alone and openly to each other. Thus I need not be afraid to ask even the most secret things and she will not be ashamed to reply honestly. Tell me, I ask you, Oh my Soul, what is it that you love above everything?"