Contemporary Clay Figure Sculpture "See Me"

Two things intersected to create this piece: Black Lives Matter and Covid. My heart broke for the ugliness we try to deny and hide around racism, and I asked myself what I could do about it. One conclusion was that I could say "I see you. You are beautiful." Here is one of seven pieces that show black faces. The necklace is one collected by my mom on her global travels; I assume it is made of coral. It's not attached to the sculpture.

When Covid shut down the figure sculpture class I was in, I ended up alone* at the kitchen table, without a model. I'd been envisioning-and making-pieces where people grew horns and wooden geometric nests held eggs. 

* Although there were no fellow sculptors, I was actually rarely alone because my husband and I were living in my childhood home taking care of my dad. He sat for hours at the other end of the table and watched me work. It motivated him to try his hand at throwing pots again, which he'd done very skillfully in the 70s and the 90s.

This wall piece contains two pieces of found wood, an abstract clay piece that I decided to use as a background for the face, and the point of the whole thing: a strong black face. 

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Painted clay, glazed clay, found wood, 9 inches wide, 5 inches deep, and 22 inches tall.