Artist Statement
Sarah Dennis has been enamored with fictional writing since childhood. Writing and drawing character designs was where the love began to manifest. The desire to create stories— worlds— of her own led to taking two years in college to study animation. That career path proved not the right fit, so she transitioned to studying ceramics for the final two years. But that creational love didn’t die with her attention on making functional ware. And so we come to this gallery. While partially limited by the laws of building, drying, firing, breaking and this not being her full-time job; the gallery isn’t actually filled with the full throng within the artist’s mind. But the representation is there strong enough. The decision to include broken as well as whole portraits, build varying sizes, and purposefully sculpting inhuman figures was to reflect the imperfection of man-made caricatures. But at the base level, the characters were built the way they are because the artist experienced joy having the vaguest design in mind and then letting the hand take over; allowing the fingers, muscles, and tendons morph the clay body until the eye was satisfied. Sarah’s hope is that, as you each peruse the gallery and take in each portrait and description, that you’ll get a taste of the fantasy and experience—even if just for a moment— a small breath of fresh air from reality.