Working within this small-stature female frame, I search for a definition of female in my sculpture that is raw, impulsive, explosive and exuberant: formidable enough to survive, thrive and be playful. I view these energetic qualities in a positive light and feel it is vital that my impetus to make work stems from who I am - an emotional being within my female physical structure.
The sculptures that build my recent installation titled Core Reverberations are centered around my body’s skeleton. I began by visually constructing the skeletal space where emotions reside in me. That correlates to the relationship in my torso between my pelvis and rib cage. This floating zone contains my heart and the soft center of my gut near my belly button, my sensory core. It expands with breath and rigidifies with fear.
My three year old self innately recognized that in my maternal grandmother there was strength shared through tenderness. She and my mother were part of my young life for far too short a time, and over the past year, I’ve been consciously exploring my maternal lineage and how it impacts the marks I make in my work. I’ve long resisted softness as a virtue, because in my gut understanding of our volatile patriarchy, gentleness was a protective skill of going quietly unnoticed, not an indicator of vitality and strength. By asking questions such as, How do I reconcile caregiving as a feminist and what does that tender care look like in my work?, I examine my own preconceptions. Subsequently I ask if and how care and tenderness could be conveyed in what I make.
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.
Cynthia Morelli
Solo Exhibitions
2024 Stacked Extension, Valdez Museum, Valdez, AK 2022 Core Reverberations, Bunnell Street Arts Center, Homer, AK 2019 Shrouded Comfort, Leah J Peterson Gallery, Anchorage, AK
2018 Visceral Elements, Bunnell Street Arts Center, Homer, AK
Shared Exhibitions
2011 Bunnell Street Arts Center, Homer, AK
2010 Gary L. Freeburg Gallery, Soldotna, AK
Select Group Exhibitions
2024 NCECA Annual, Rendered Fusion, Harness Museum of Art, Richmond, VA 2023 Alaska Biennial, Anchorage Museum, Anchorage, AK. 2022 Landscapes, Chehalem Cultural Center, Newberg, OR 2019 Left Coast, Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA
2019 Drawn North, International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Anchorage, AK
2018 Twin Cups National Ceramics Exhibition, MWSU School of Fine Arts, St. Joseph, MO
2018 Off Center: International Ceramics Competition, Blue Line Arts, Roseville, CA
2015 Clayworks in Old Town, Bunnell Street Arts Center, Homer, AK
2015 Small Favors, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
2014 All Alaska Juried Exhibition, Anchorage Museum, Anchorage, AK
2014 New Directions, Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY
2013 Earth, Fire, Fibre, Anchorage Museum, Anchorage, AK
2008 Kenai Peninsula College Art Faculty Exhibit, Homer, AK
2000 Alaska Juried Clay Exhibit, Bunnell Street Arts Center, Homer, AK
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
Education
1986 BFA New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred, NY
1984 Certificate in Crafts New Brunswick Craft School, Canada