Stacked Extension explores tenderness, vitality, growth and emotions held in the space contained in the rib cage and pelvis.

This exhibit closes January 10th and has been brought to you by the Valdez Museum & Historical Archive with the support of Valdez United Way.

About the Artist:

Cynthia Morelli has been showing her work in Alaskan Exhibitions for over 20 years. Her sculptures are both earthy and ephemeral, exuding supportive nature of feminine strength.

In her own words: 

Moving clay gesturally nurtures my need to wander and explore. My mind repeatedly visits my intention, yet strays. Led by the work as it unfolds, I find myself in a more expansive realm than where I began. Sometimes humor is introduced through chance and ambiguity, which brings ease and lightness to my making process. My search evolves intuitively, as I cut, break and tear the clay, removing what I sense as extraneous and adding more when the form asks for that. I trust the dialogue between my eye, hand, material and heart. Porcelain, a clay of perceived fragility, is beginning to find its way to the surface and exterior of some of my forms. For some time, I’ve used this clay in interior spaces, held and protected within coarse stoneware. I’m noting that change. It indicates to me a turning the inside out, an exposure of layers. Discoveries like this during the making process help illuminate and direct my work. I feel it is vital that my impetus to make work stems from who I am – an emotional being in a small-statured female frame.

Awards

2020  Rasmuson Foundation Fellowship, 2018  Second Place, Off Center, International Ceramics Competition,
2015  Alex Combs Award, 1986  Ceramic Department Honors, New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred, NY

This exhibit closes January 10th and has been brought to you by the Valdez Museum & Historical Archive with the support of Valdez United Way.