Arms.
A clay exploration of balance and chaos, utilizing antique molds for making doll parts. Arms whether reaching out, tending, caring, doing, asking, wanting, making, needing are in turn light hearted, or heavy. Manageable or unruly? Nutritive or depleting? Caring or Needy? The same 14 arm shapes are reorganized infinitely to push the idea, that the needs and desires from the work of human hands are complex. Starting in 2020, Walsh sought balance in her art practice, and found it in the shapes made.
Using the slip-mold technique, arms are manufactured, trimmed, and eventually integrated into myriad of base forms. The bases are made using a variety of techniques and viscosity of clay. Colleen intuitively arranged and integrated arms into each piece, as a reaction to each completely unique base. The form was pushed in proportion to the size and shape limitations of a set 16 shapes of arms, resulting from the molds at hand. The pallet of glazes used was limited to emphasize the shape.
Process.
During the Covid pandemic, Walsh made a literal interpretation of needing eight arms to keep up with the basic needs of her home and family. While quarantining with her spouse (who never missed a day of work), 2 young children, and three dogs she felt the stretch of all necessary mother roles, ten fold. House hold manager, playmate, teacher, chef, activities director, personal trainer, et cetera. This was the atmosphere, when she stole away spare moments to work in her home studio for short spurts, which the build process afforded. It grew into a factory-like endeavor after the success of their release in 2021.
Inspiration.
The body of work has been shown at The Other Art Fair, Chicago in 2021 & 2022. Later the work was represented in Chicago’s Bridgeport gallery district, at Salon LB. The sculptures are now available online.
