A new exhibition is up in the Forum Gallery at Brookhaven Campus. Ginny Marsh’s “Evolving Concepts in Clay” opened Jan. 16 and will close March 1.
Marsh is an artist who frequently works with high temperature stoneware, porcelain and clay. According to her website, she works with various forms of heat and fire, using gas and wood fuel to find a variety of colors in her glazes.
Jarod Villalon, gallery coordinator at Brookhaven Campus, said, “Visitors can expect a beautiful exhibit centered around learning and the evolution of Ginny Marsh’s process, techniques, and forms she’s created from the earliest stages of her career as an artist to presently being a nationally recognized potter.”
An informational paper lies on a table at the gallery entrance. Here visitors can find a statement from Marsh on her showcased work. Marsh said her beginnings in pottery, stemming from the simple enjoyment of shaping mud, proceeding to add fire to turn the mud into stone and realizing she had found her passion in life. “There was no going back,” Marsh said.
As visitors roam the exhibit, they will gain an understanding of Marsh’s evolution with pottery. There are pieces on walls, laid on stands and even some meticulously placed on the floor.
They feature practices of wedging board forms, recycling clay formations, layering glaze and twisting cutoff wire formations.
“This exhibition highlights several ways in which basic processes have been seeds which inform the development of the concepts of my work,” Marsh said.
Marsh said these basic processes are qualities she likes to keep consistent, as they make her pottery identifiable and specific, to the point where those who view it have a perception of her without any discussion needed.
“Holding a handmade pot from a friend or from a potter of thousands of years ago is, in fact, a sort of way of shaking hands with the maker,” Marsh said. “There may even be visible fingerprints of the maker that remain as a testament of their presence.”
The Forum Gallery will hold a reception noon to 2 p.m. Feb. 20, where Marsh will be present to give a short talk and answer questions.
The exhibit is open to all students, staff, faculty and the public 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday. The coordinators of the Forum Gallery ask that visitors be mindful of where they step while in the gallery and keep backpacks outside of or at the front door of the gallery to avoid bumping into artwork.
