ABOUT THE SILVA COLLECTION

The Silva Collection draws on conversations and walks I had with Emily Johnson. In my studio I started to explore a few different concepts based on the boulders, mountain vistas and waterfall basins that we visited last year. About a couple of weeks into this exploration I recalled a small meadow we passed by on the way down to the Kaaterskill falls filled with dried grasses and wildflowers. The grasses had dropped some of their seeds and looking more closely, examining them in my hands I noticed some were split open creating flattened surfaces.

Somehow the mystery of these dried seed hulls started to nudge me while I was working through some of the other sketches. Maybe it’s the mystery of the cyclical nature of these small but powerful life forces containing seed pods that got me thinking about how they are carried distances by the rain and wind. Replanting themselves in different areas the seeds then enter a winter rest period before starting the cycle all over again.

I am interested in the way that objects or sculptures communicate with people. Conveying a message, a story and for me it’s also very much about the journey of how the shapes came to be. I’m curious about the process, following the sometimes subtle insights. I also see this work as open ended, one step leading to the next. An elastic idea or thread.

ABOUT SARAH

Sarah Mitchell-Davison's work is both textural and fluid. Her coiled and slab built sculptural stoneware vessels are often organic in shape revealing impressions left by her hands.
Sarah is an emerging ceramic artist working out of her West Kill, NY based studio Arc Ceramics. She isinspired by the cyclical nature of her surroundings and this environment flows through her work.

Most of Sarah's work is experimental and continues to evolve. She is interested in the journey, the process and how the pieces ultimately communicate their story through form and surface. She is always looking for new materials and methods, even leaning into accidental discoveries to move her art forward. Her studio time and her hands in clay are her calm space,

a place of reflection and open-ended exploration.