The video we have today is contemporary ceramic art from CFile’s back yard. Sculptor Rose B. Simpson is from the Pueblo of Santa Clara. She was profiled in 2011 by Buffalo Thunder Resort Casino’s Native Art Collection.
Above image: Rose B. Simpson, The Secret of Flight, 2015, mixed media, 33 x 18 x 19 inches. Photograph courtesy of Chiaroscuro.
Simpson was born in Santa Fe to an extended family of artists and was raised between the city and Santa Clara Pueblo. She studied at University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and transferred to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, where she graduated in 2007 with a BFA in studio arts. Chiaroscuro Santa Fe, which exhibits Simpson’s work, had this to say about her background and expression:
Of both Indigenous and Anglo descent, with art and philosophy primary in both families, she has pursued the pure expression of truth through many forms of art including sculpture, printmaking, drawing, creative writing, music, and dance. Her work often signifies the constant struggle between the two worlds that most modern Indigenous peoples survive through; traditional and the colonist perspective/assimilation.
In the Buffalo Thunder video, Simpson speaks about her work as a process that’s born of empathy. That sense of empathy builds her relationship to the world.
I’ve noticed that I really project myself onto a lot of things. I empathize. I imagine if I were that rock, if I were that fire, if I were that leaf, if I were that tree, if I were that plant… And so, right now, I feel like I’m playing around with the idea of how do I create myself in those scenes in an emotional context.
Be sure to explore more of Simpson’s work at the links we’ve included in this post.
What do you think of Simpson’s contemporary ceramic art? Let us know in the comments.
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