One of those things that float around in your head is to “put your best foot forward”.  So I did just that when I applied to the 2020 Taiwan Ceramics Biennale International Competition with my Colbert flower.  In this case Colbert is sharing the stage with a photograph projection by Barbara Brown and together the piece is called Gone But Still Here from our collaborative show Life Cycle; Conversations (2018-19).

Gone But Still Here has been accepted!

The amazing thing about being juried into this show for the second time is that it is for totally different work!  My first application was with My Brain and black body, slab sculpture talking about Alzheimer’s disease.  This time is it for a white body, pinch, molded sculpture, collaborative work with photographer Barbara Brown, talking about death.  WOW!!

The first thing is to get over the shock and excitement of being accepted!!  Then get right to work with communicating with Taiwan and starting the packing process.  They give you 3 months to get the work to Taiwan and it really does take 3 months to do that.  Do I build the shipping box?  Do I pay for the box to be built…..In my case we did both as the first box was not quite up to snuff.  Here is the first box made and we figured it may not quite be enough to get to the other side of the world!!

So we then went looking for help…..and found our new best friends Art Zone!!  These guys made a box, figured out the brokerage fees, the fragility of the work and how to get it to Taiwan in one piece!!  Thank You!

This whole process is so filled with fear and anxiety that I wonder why I do this to myself.  This is not even to mention the money!  Art Zone did a great job taking care of the work as well as me, holding my hand through the whole process.  Colbert flower, display stand and Photograph have all arrived safely and now we all wait for the next stage in the International Competition….another jury.  Cross your fingers and I’ll get back to you.

Ahhhh I am but still a humble mortal.  Grand Prize for the Ceramic Biennale went to Susan Beiner (USA). Go look her up!  Funny enough when I was participating in the 2019 NCECA (presenting on Clay in Long Term Care) I picked up her lovely booklet “organic Dissolution”.  Small world especially where our interests are.

The best thing is when they filmed the big reveal, Taiwan pans over all work that is in the show…..and there was a flash of my lovely flower!!  A wonderful feeling that.