Courtney Thomas
Bending & Reshaping the Meaning of Normal, 2020
Ceramics
9 x 9 x 9 inches
During my freshman year I had some great friendships that, unfortunately, only lasted through my second year of high school. I started to think I had done something wrong and of course, I blamed myself. Over time I came to realize that what I had experienced was normal and helped me understand that not everyone is cut out to be friends with each other. For the past year and a half, I’ve felt very isolated and alone; I feel like I am different from many of my classmates —but to keep it real, we all are different in our own ways. I don’t go to house parties on the weekends, I don’t make plans with friends and I don’t get invited to go places. I guess it would be safe to say that I am what is considered the textbook 'high school outcast’. I drew my inspiration for this piece from this revelation.
Since the beginning of my journey as a ceramicist, I stumbled upon a slight obsession with constructing 3-D forms, like bowls and vases, out of circular discs. So, during the process of brainstorming for this project, I decided to build on that idea and make a cube out of small bowls. To make all the bowl forms, I used two molds. Construction included stacking the small forms on top of each other and glazing them together; joining them permanently.
This box exemplifies the way I am as a person. From a distance it may appear to the eye as a singular, cube-like form but up close, what is supposed to be square and hard-edged is actually circular, rounded and soft. Like this box, I may come off as a cold and closed off person (and I apologize for that) but behind my quiet, hermit-like persona, I am a cool, impressionable, kind, caring, artistic, funny, smart and athletic African American female. I don’t fit inside the “normal” box that society has created because the way I am is not “normal”. I am a unique, one-of-a-kind being, the same as everyone else. I am learning to accept the challenge of bending and reshaping the meaning of normal.
