The highlight of the Indiana Clay Conference was attending Hunter Stamps, Artist Talk: Taming the Taboo: Subversive Ceramics. I hadn't expected to relate so much to how he thinks about his work and where he takes inspiration from. He spoke about how his work is an outlet for some of the horror, grotesque, internal bodily obsessions he has. He is balancing genuine and personal conceptual work while still maintaining an abstraction that still disturbs the viewer. I was able to take away several artists Stamps introduced to me to look into: Hans Bellmer, Linda Lighttion, Janine Antoni, Louise Bourgeois, and a book called The Power of Horror by Julia Kristeva.
He is confident, it's where I would like to be with my work. Very inspirational, I’m definitely going to reach out and ask for a crit where I will pepper him with questions about how he does it all.
I was also selected to participate in the Juried Exhibition: The State of Clay in Indiana III, which was an incredible honor. It's like conferences love me. Seriously thought, it was intimidating being included in a show with the best of the best who've lived and worked in Indiana. I haven't gone through the entire catalog yet, but I’m fairly certain there are only a few students whose work got into the show. I’m kinda freaking out about it. I always feel a little nervous and weird when attention is thrust my way.
