INTIMATE CONVERSATIONS
“Intimate Conversations,” Society of Arts & Crafts, Boston, 1992

Gail Brown

I remember too well when many women wore social masks which outwardly communicated their would-be perfect lives; the “masks” did not remove easily and delayed or deferred any opportunity for budding, honest communication. More frequently today, we meet someone who becomes an intimate friend quickly: the right connections are made and a dialogue of promise and substance begins. Often, these intense conversations are with artists and others of diverse creativity who bare their own vulnerabilities more freely and listen harder to one another. I value greatly this enlightened, mutual trust and personal risk taking.

I am likewise drawn to visual work which makes this same leap of faith: moving
directly to touch cords of personal recognition, without artifice. Work of this nature speaks a language of accessibility referencing shared private experiences, those both difficult and joyful, evoking empathy. It offers a visible dialogue grounded in the familiar, an invitation for others to take risks and share ideas and emotions, out loud. The smallest confidence, shared, has the potential to become a monumental public affirmation. Thus begins Intimate Conversations.

The intrinsic nature of clay with its ever-present connection to the earth affords seemingly limitless possibilities, accommodations and plasticity; it shares a physical adaptability suggestive of the range of human vagaries and complexities. Clay
encompasses immediate material contradictions simultaneously: being both soft and hard, appearing both fragile and strong, appropriate for exquisite miniaturization and surprisingly monumental scale, intrinsically rooted to the past, yet possible to always become something new, wearing a perfect, accomplished skin or reflecting the emotional and physical fingerprints of each maker. Its variables allow the diversity that human imagination and communication may require.