GERRI FRAGER

Title: Flowers Are Our Fuel

Dimensions: 9.2” H X 4” W

Medium: Raku Clay

Date Made: June 2019

Retail Price: $175

Artist’s Statement (meaning/inspiration, etc.):  I love to watch hummingbirds dive their beaks and bodies into flowers.  This candle-holder takes the form of a trumpet flower encircled by 3 hummingbirds topped by a bee on a beehive as the lid.

The beehive and bee lid are glazed and raku-fired.  The small base of the candle holder and the candleholder are fired by the naked raku process.  Underglazes and glazes used over all.  Gold acrylic pain highlights some areas with acrylic spray over all.  

Title:  Eulogy for Those Fallen from Flight

Dimensions: 15” h X 18” diameter, and poem
Medium: Stoneware, wood, metal, paper
Date Made: June 2019

Retail Price: $330

Artist’s Statement (meaning/inspiration, etc.):  This interactive piece invites the gallery visitor to rotate the turntable and read the poem, causing the hummingbird, bee and flower to revolve around the earth.  It represents the environmental challenges our earth faces, with our natural world threatened by deforestation, climate change, and pollution.  The birds and bees that bring so much joy and beauty are declining.  The broken hummingbird, repaired with the Japanese approach of kintsugi, is symbolic of that which is broken can sometimes but not always be repaired.  A call to action is often driven by loss or the threat of loss.  I find writing as a companion to my pottery complements one another and perhaps helps to impart the message more deeply than either one alone.  

Wheel thrown stoneware for the “earth”, porcelain for the bird, bee and flower.  Underglazes and glazes fired to cone 6, highlights painted with Porcelain 150.  Revolving wooden tray painted by decoupage process.  Broken hummingbird repaired by “kintsugi” treatment with gold acrylic paint.