Jodi Colella, Herman + Ray, 2025, Clay, photo on silk, lace, vintage quilt, cotton, nylon, fiberfill, 17 × 11 × 8 inches, $500

I’m a sculptor of objects and room-sized installations that speak to an overlapping discourse about craft, women’s work, domesticity and feminism. These new sculptures from my Figments collection capture fleeting memories of those who came before me. Ceramic vessels stitched with autobiographical fibers and silk photographs to render dimensional portraits. Something is a little off. The holes are in mismatched places. They reveal some of the interior but not much. Herman Ray stands upright with an intentional gaze. Lonnie hangs an ill-disposed hand from his knee. A third sculpture, Neither Here Nor There, portrays a blurred landscape as if speeding down the highway on a Sunday drive. There is a dichotomy between the rigid ceramic structure and the plushness oozing out the holes that feels both comfortable and unsettling. The soft imagery and domestic textiles are nostalgic, almost ghostlike, like a vestige of a former existence.

Balancing tradition and innovation I employ needlework to infuse renewed power to craft, engage the senses and explore the human condition. I use textiles to convey stories of loss and constraint primarily in women’s lives. Attracted to color and texture, my durational process embraces the ideals of labor and community. I’ve recently introduced ceramics commingling rigid forms with fibers to create vessels that don’t hold water but instead contain stories embodying domestic life. Aspiring to David Pye’s Workmanship of Risk my final products are not predetermined and controlled from the outset. In contrast they depend on my judgment, dexterity and care during the process of making. It is the direct contact between me and the material that connects to earth and authenticity. I read the rawness and state of un finish as tenderness and challenge the pristine uniformity of mass-production as the nullification of expression. - Jodi Colella

Balancing tradition and innovation I create sculptures with elaborate layers of stitch, pattern and meaning using materials from soft domestic to rigid ceramic. My recent work intertwines familial connections and the inheritance of objects, skills and ideas passed through generations. Grandmother’s quilts, wedding dresses, drapes, plaid shirts, furry remnants from toys, upholstery, threads from unfinished needlework, and family photos are manipulated with crochet, weaving, wrapping and embroidery. I’ve recently introduced clay commingling rigid forms with fibers to create vessels that don’t hold water but instead contain stories embodying domestic life as an inquiry and form of self-discovery.