Swallow, 2024, Glazed Stoneware, Epoxy Resin, Tarnished Mirror, X-Ray, Dragonfly Carcass, Foraged Organic Material, Patinated Pennies, Copper, Found Objects in Patina Solution, 17 x 11 x 4.5 in
NORAH STONE
Artist Statement
Merging ceramic handbuilding with found materials, my sculptures carry the psychic residue of an ecologically stunted earth. Driven by an urge to protect the precious and fleeting, I embed emotionally resonant debris such as insect carcasses, thorns, plastic toys, hair, and coins into the cavities of my forms. Through rigorous glaze experimentation and atmospheric firing techniques, I treat the kiln as a collaborator—rendering geological processes on the ceramic surface through heat, gravity and time. Like sacred relics imbued with mystical powers from fairytales or science fiction, much of my work suggests ambiguous function. Suspended in glassy pools of epoxy, distorted text, debris, and shrunken images are frozen mid-animation, like fragments of memory hovering at the edge of consciousness.