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Paula Rice |
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The Planet Series ~ Project Description As an amateur astronomer, I am fascinated by the sky at night. I am fortunate to live in the city of Flagstaff, whose clear skies and high altitude assisted in the discovery of the planet Pluto in 1930. I have joined several astronomy clubs, and have spent many hours looking out of telescopes into the vast, mysterious, and impersonal universe that surrounds us. I have been studying images from the Hubble Telescope. From that has come a sense of chilling indifference to us here on Earth. I seek outward, in a kind of pilgrimage and ascent to the stars, only to be thrown back into myself, where I started, in my mind. My new work as an artist uses these experiences as fuel. I have recently completed a “solar system” of nine figures made mostly from clay. These figurative sculptures represent the planets in our solar system. (I include Pluto, recently demoted from planetary status, in this planetary group.) Each “planet” figure includes new information from space as landscape or surface. New scientific discoveries are included in the postures of each piece as well. “Mars”, for example, is in the process of drinking water from the hand, in acknowledgement of the recent discovery that there has been water on the surface of Mars in the past. My pieces are influenced compositionally by the frontality and sense of stillness of ancient Egyptian figurative sculpture, a sensibility that seems appropriate to planets when I look out at them through a telescope. Mostly, my new work is a way for me to imagine a reality incomprehensively vast, and bring it down to human size. It is a way for me to inhabit these planets myself, and to make human connection where there seems to be none. It is about us here on Earth. For the first time in human history, our sense of place, and the size of our imaginations, has had to stretch to include these worlds. My new work places us in these new surroundings. Note: After years of work on this project, The “Planet Series” set of nine pieces has recently been completed. It has been shown for the first time in April, 2009, in a juried, international venue in conjunction with the National Council on Education for the Ceramics Arts Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. It will be shown in celebration of the International Year of Astronomy at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, from August 5th – September 19, 2009. |
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Paula Rice can be reached at 928.600.1826 |
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© 2006-2007 This site and all its contents are rights protected by Paula Rice. |
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