Umbellatus

• Main Author: Winn, Kytana
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: DigitalCommons@Linfield 2017
• Subjects: ceramics; Art and Design; Art Practice; Ceramic Arts; Reindeer lichen
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/avc_thesis2017/7; https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/context/avc_thesis2017/article/1027/type/native/viewcontent/Umbellatus_Winn_2017.jpg

Umbellatus is a ceramic coil vessel with an ancient jasper glaze. Artist's Statement I hate the rain. I've always hated the rain. Never liked looking at it nor walking in it. Yet for some reason I chose to live in Oregon for four years. Why Kytana, why??! However, with no car, and 15-minute walks to destinations, I had no real choice but to be outside and in it. I used to keep my head down looking at the same boring-ass grey pavement, only looking up to make sure I didn't get hit by a car when I crossed the street. It sucked. Then, I started using my 15-minute walks as a time to boot up and deflate. That was the only time and space I had to myself and thus I walked a little slower. The slower I walked the more inclined I was to look up. Even though the sky was grey and my glasses would become covered in rain drops, I started to pay attention to the hydrangea bushes sagged in the rain and the reindeer lichen clinging to the bark of trees. I noticed some plants seemed to survive while others were just enduring. Enduring the shitty weather just like me. Turns out me and those plants I was seeing every day weren't that different at all. Human beings and plants/fungi are both extraordinarily complex and fragile. They're both in continuous cycles of growth and decay. Evolving and devolving. That's what I see myself doing as both an artist and a person. Evok Devok: Organic Self is an exploration of how I see myself through various plant and fungi. The more interested I became in looking closer at various plants and fungi, like these photographs of Lace Lichens and Coprinus Cinerea Mushrooms, the more I saw reflections of how I see myself. They're so small and delicate that they are often overlooked, but it doesn't mean they're not as complex, raw, and important as the rest of their peers. I too often feel insignificant and overlooked. I know I appear as this towering, stout woman but on the inside, I feel much like a piece of lace lichen that is knotted and holed, or like a drooping Coprinus Cinerea mushroom that curls ...