The Retrospective

One of Kathy's cousins, Tom, is an artist who works in ceramics.  So when we all went to downtown Charlotte, he suggested the Mint Museum, because it had a retrospective exhibition of an artist who works in ceramics, as well as other materials.  His name is Michael Sherrill and he combines clay, metal, and glass to create large-scale botanically inspired sculptures.  He is a self-taught artist and inventor.  And his work is nothing short of astounding.  I am afraid I would never have chosen this exhibition to visit if it were not for Tom, and I am thrilled that we experienced it.

The exhibit started out with things you would expect to see by an artist in ceramics, and included some lovely teapots.  But then as he changed the way he thought, he moved into vessels like these two, above.  What a stunning jump in his way of working!

These objects are combinations of ceramics, glass and metal, and their inspiration comes from the natural world.

 It is astounding to see some of these creations of his.  Unlike anything I have seen before!  It was wonderful to watch how he changed over time and how that was reflected in his pieces.  Michael Sherrill has lived in the western North Carolina mountains since 1974, and one small detail that charmed me, is that his studio is in Bat Cave, North Carolina!