{"id":15335,"date":"2021-04-26T14:24:15","date_gmt":"2021-04-26T18:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/?page_id=15335"},"modified":"2021-05-05T10:19:02","modified_gmt":"2021-05-05T14:19:02","slug":"laila-stevens-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/laila-stevens-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Laila Stevens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Laila Stevens&#8217; Artist Statement<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/files\/2021\/04\/Laila-Stevens.mp3\" autoplay><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>I work with clay to make sculpture.&nbsp; I have always found beauty in scientific images, whether it be the structure of an organelle or the lattice of complex molecules, and this outlook informs my creative direction.&nbsp; Through this body of work, I have merged my interests and studies in biology, chemistry, and ceramics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By hand-building earthenware sculptures I am able to model amorphous forms inspired by organic structures.&nbsp; My most successful pieces are made when I embrace the spontaneity of both the building and firing processes and allow the work to change and develop.&nbsp; When I construct the forms of my sculptures, I build them one half at a time, with the only requirement being that the two halves must line up when they are fitted together.&nbsp; Through this method, the forms I make are both soft and heavy, broad and specific, and strange yet beautiful.&nbsp; I work to embrace these dichotomies, with all of the paradoxical elements coexisting.&nbsp; Next, I use terra sigillata, slip, stain, and metallic lusters to create surface designs that encompass the body like a skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since I rely heavily on biological imagery for inspiration, the current pandemic-filled world, saturated with photos of the COVID-19 virus, made me<strong> <\/strong>want to explore those viruses further as three-dimensional entities, rather than flat and unapproachable on a page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, after months of exploration and experimentation, my sculptures have moved beyond a direct connection to those former references and have instead become abstract objects.&nbsp; At times they remind me of a rock or an animal, and at other times, I clearly see the outline of a scapula or pelvis.&nbsp; This kind of individualized and conditional implication is very alluring to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I do not think that something has to be completely recognizable or understood to possess beauty.&nbsp; In fact, sometimes the things that are novel or strange are the most captivating.&nbsp; And while captivation does not always equate to beauty or wonder, I think there is something fascinating to be discovered about anything.&nbsp; And in this way, I believe there is great beauty in all existence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Laila Stevens&#8217; Artist Statement I work with clay to make sculpture.&nbsp; I&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1736,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_dimp_site_id":"","_dimp_override_contact":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-15335","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1736"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15335"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15418,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15335\/revisions\/15418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}