"A Precious Story" : FINAL By Mariah Torres

Quote: “One has to live a life always at an angle… to be oneself and at the same time another… nothing, absolutely nothing, as it seems.” -John Banville, The Untouchable, (Finklestein, Joanne; Pg 121) For my final project, I have created a ceramic vase and painted various symbols around it. The subject of my project is to show my grandfather’s story in Puerto Rico because he was one of the few very important people in my life. The contents on the vase shows the Puerto Rican flag being surrounded by pineapples. Pineapples were highly favored by the people in Puerto Rico, so he made a good profit off of them. My grandfather was a farmer and owned several crops. He loved working and kept up with his farm. On the top of the vase around the neck, fish are carved; My grandfather was a fisherman as well. Fish are plentiful around Puerto Rico, so he helped fish for the people as well. In the back of the vase is a silhouette of horses going up a mountain. My grandfather used to own several horses of his own. He caught them wild and tamed them. I made this choice to make this composition because I was inspired by Susanna Esposito. She is a ceramic artist that makes statement pieces and ceramic pieces. She isn’t hesitant about showing her heritage on her work, which reminds me of my grandfather. He was proud of where he came from. So, I wanted to take my project a step further and create a statement piece for my family. The process to make this vase was timely. The method I used to make the form was the coiling method, which I had to roll several pieces of clay into long rolled strips and then stack them on top of one another. I then smoothed out the stacked clay to secure its form. I used a paddle to lightly beat the bumps down a bit to get a smoother surface for carving my designs. After bisque firing, I used different colors of underglaze and painted the designs on it. I let the paint dry before glazing the piece and set it for the last firing. The differences to this self-portrait and my midterm self-portrait are I chose to not focus the project on an important moment in my life. Instead, I focused on the person that taught my parents and I to be compassionate about people and life. I also did not want to make another collage again, I wanted to make a sculpture to test my other creative skills. (This semester, I’ve done ceramics class, I’m not a pro at it. I’ll keep practicing!). My piece is traditional and speaks for the Puerto Rican culture. Culture exists in the spectacle because it is one of the many important things that define us in our society. Culture classifies us in different social groups. Art pieces that carry certain styles, achievements, and archives that belong in a certain group carry a lot of meaning.