Jamie Zane Smith #112023

$3,850.00

Jamie is an incredibly thoughtful and interesting person. His work is so unique and reveals so much about his culture and background. His explanation about each individual piece is so helpful in terms of understanding his thoughts and ideas.

This new jar is hand coiled and slipped with multicolored pigments. The color combinations are wonderful. He has also made a special clay stand to sit underneath the jar.

Here is Jamie’s discussion of the jar, which has titled POWER OF PLACE – “The hand-carved wood stamp texture that repeats across the surface represents the source of inspiration. The image in the design represents the place where two creeks come together. This is the place where images arise. This point is located on an artery that connects us to the water world. These converge as one stream that becomes a series of rivers that connect in a network that span the globe. The Tri-Castellated rim represents both waterways that meet at the “spout.” This is a contemporary rendition of traditional Wyandot collared rim. It harks to our ancestry and points to where we abide today. Every spring and every tributary is important. It is the reason why we are here. This small seemingly insignificant position is elevated as a connection to the source of being.”

Beautiful either on or off the stand, it is stunning. Distinctive and individual, this is a terrific new hand coiled clay creation from Jamie Zane Smith.

15h” by 11” wide with stand

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Jamie Zane Smith

We are so happy to be working with Jamie. He participated in the miniature show, and his work was fantastic. So now he will be a regular with our gallery. Jamie is an immensely talented young potter, who is also a particularly thoughtful and interesting person. I asked him to put into his own words a bit of a biography. Here is Jamie’s statement:

My work references ancient ancestral stories and symbols from traditional Wyandot heritage. I present these in a language of repetitive visual vibrations to tell a contemporary story. I am inspired by the maple tree constantly pushing up through the earth and spreading her roots and branches. Every year she opens her structurally patterned leaves to face the sun. Each leaf takes in light and stores the energy. With the stored energy the tree creates food and habitat for the forest. In this way the tree sustains its own life and culture by generously providing and sharing abundantly in a symmetrical fashion.

I am interested in symbolism that helps to tell our story and connect us to our origins. The ceramic vessel forms reference ancient culinary utensils. The big pots represent kettles and storage jars that would feed multiple families living in close community. The kettles of ancient times helped provide cultural nourishment by outputting an abundance of food and enhancing the environment. The forms and symbols that I create tell a story of contemporary people and remind us that we are the axis that connects future generations to our indigenous ancestors.

My process includes collecting native clays and carving wooden stamps. The wood for the carved stamps is sourced from local hardwoods. The clay forms the vessels and is used as the base for the fired-on slip paints. The carvings on the stamps contain imagery that is impressed in a serial fashion on the surface of the pots. Each individual stamp detail is the result of a vertical block printing in clay. The action involved in the transfer of the design from the stamp to the clay corrugates the surface. It also increases the strength and expands the form of the vessel. The paint on the surface enhances the visual effect by sorting the elements embedded in the stamp and relating them to the whole. The imagery employed seeks to visually explore the structure at the root of our reality. There is a common language shared by all things. Through three dimensional rendering I attempt to express a visual metaphor that helps define the contemporary state of experience.

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