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STATEMENT
Working within this small-stature female frame, I search for a definition of female in my sculpture that is raw, impulsive, explosive and exuberant: formidable enough to survive, thrive and be playful. I view these energetic qualities in a positive light and feel it is vital that my impetus to make work stems from who I am - an emotional being within my female physical structure.
The sculptures that build my recent installation titled Core Reverberations, are centered around my body’s skeleton. I began by visually constructing the skeletal space where emotions reside in me. That correlates to the relationship in my torso between my pelvis and rib cage. This floating zone contains my heart and the soft center of my gut near my belly button, my sensory core. It expands with breath and rigidifies with fear.
My three year old self innately recognized that in my maternal grandmother there was strength shared through tenderness. She and my mother were part of my young life for far too short a time, and over the past year, I’ve been consciously exploring my maternal lineage and how it impacts the marks I make in my work. I’ve long resisted softness as a virtue, because in my gut understanding of our volatile patriarchy, gentleness was a protective skill of going quietly unnoticed, not an indicator of vitality and strength. By asking questions such as, How do I reconcile caregiving as a feminist and what does that tender care look like in my work?, I examine my own preconceptions. Subsequently I ask if and how care and tenderness could be conveyed in what I make.
Moving clay gesturally nurtures my need to wander and explore. My mind repeatedly visits my intention, yet strays. Led by the work as it unfolds, I find myself in a more expansive realm than where I began. Sometimes humor is introduced through chance and ambiguity, which brings ease and lightness to my making process. My search evolves intuitively, as I cut, break and tear the clay, removing what I sense as extraneous and adding more when the form asks for that. I trust the dialogue between my eye, hand, material and heart. Porcelain, a clay of perceived fragility, is beginning to find its way to the surface and exterior of some of my forms. For some time, I’ve used this clay in interior spaces, held and protected within coarse stoneware. I’m noting that change. It indicates to me a turning the inside out, an exposure of layers. Discoveries like this during the making process help illuminate and direct my work.
BIO
Cynthia Morelli received her BFA (1986) from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred, where Tony Hepburn guided her to unlearn preconceptions about what she could do with clay. After graduating, Morelli spent five years living in Japan, three of those years with a Cultural Visa studying Butoh and calligraphy. She has been a studio artist in Homer, Alaska since 1993, exhibiting around the state and nationally. Morelli was awarded a Rasmusson Foundation Fellowship in 2020.
EXHIBITIONS/SHOWS/COMMISSIONS
Solo Exhibitions
2022 • Core Reverberations, Bunnell Street Art Center, Homer, AK
2019 • Shrouded Comfort, Leah J Peterson Gallery, Anchorage, AK
2018 • Visceral Elements, Bunnell Street Art Center, Homer, AK
Select Group Exhibitions
2022 • Landscapes, NW Woodfire Conference, Chehalem Cultural Center, Newberg, OR, Chris Pate, juror
2019 • Left Coast, Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA, Scott A. Shields, juror
• Drawn North, International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Anchorage, AK, Graham Marks, juror
2018 • Off Center: International Ceramics Competition, Blue Line Art, Roseville, CA, Michelle Gregor, juror
2015 • Small Favors, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
2014 • Alaska Juried Exhibition, Anchorage Museum, Bonnie Laing-Malcomson, juror
• New Directions, Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY, Lynne Warren, juror
2011 • Two Person Exhibit, Bunnell Street Art Center, Homer, AK
2010 • Two Person Exhibit, Gary L. Freeburg Gallery, Soldotna, AK
2008 • KPC Art Faculty Exhibit, KPC, Homer, AK
2000 • AK Juried Clay Exhibit, Bunnell Street Art Center, Homer, AK, Jeff Oestreich, juror
EDUCATION
1986 BFA New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred, NY
1984 Certificate in Craft, New Brunswick Craft School, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
AWARDS/DISTINCTIONS
Awards
2020 • Rasmuson Foundation Fellowship
2018 • Second Place, Off Center: International Ceramics Competition
2015 • Alex Combs Award
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2021 • Artist Driven Alaska Residency with C.Morelli, A.Gentry, H.Kreitchet, Z.Powell, at Cynthia Morelli
Studio, Homer,AK
• Host, L.Oesterritter Reduction Cool Woodfire Workshop, at Cynthia Morelli Studio, Homer, AK
2020 • AIR Selection Committee 2018 & 2020 Bunnell St. Art Center, Homer, AK
2019 • Instructor, Unfired Clay Drawings Workshop, Hesketh Island, AK
2017 • Hervé Rousseau sculpture workshop participant, Penland, NC
2016 • International Woodfire Conference participant ,Waubansee CC, Sugar Grove, IL
• Catenary arch woodfire kiln design and construction at Cynthia Morelli Studio, Homer, AK
2012 • Anagama kiln design and construction at Cynthia Morelli Studio, Homer, AK
2010 • Adjunct Faculty, Art 2008-2010, KPC & KRC branches of University of Alaska
1993 • Butoh performances Karada Troupe, 1991-1993 Tokyo and Osaka, Japan
ARTIST'S TAGS
abstract artist, sculptor, woodfiredceramics, contemporary art, drawings, mixed media art, sculpture