Haley Juskowski : Visual Symbols

Inside My Head

Air Dry Clay, Blue Marker, Brown Marker

Roughly 4-5" Tall

Detail

A Mothers Love

Air Dry Clay, Red Marker

Roughly 4-5" Tall

Detail

Reflection Statement:

The ceramic sculptures entitled Inside My Head and A Mothers Love, were inspired by the medical disorder (cluster headaches) that I have suffered throughout the last six years as well as the bond between mother and child during pregnancy. My intent is to visually communicate what I go through regularly. I wanted to focus on the pained look for my figurative bust because that was the most compelling visual for this particular illness. I also wanted to focus solely on the swollen stomach of a pregnant mother growing her child with love and support. I decided to include two arms and with hands gripping the sides of my figures head for the first figure. Next, I worked to achieve a similar idea to that of a fertility totem from ancient times. I felt the work was lacking some clarity so I added two medical symbols and some extra color as well to indicate the separation between the hands and head. For my second sculpture I hollowed out the back of my figure and filled it with my ten items. I want to keep exploring with these materials in a constructive way. I want to learn more about accurate figure proportion. These pieces allowed for me to put the skills I have already developed to better use. The making of these works exposed new ideas such as new ways to work with the materials and new ways of manipulating the work to portray clear messages.