LISA BELSKY

My work explores ideas of memory, preservation, transformation, and connection. The art of knitting and crocheting was passed down through generations of women in my family. My Mother taught me to knit and crochet when I was six years old and it has always been an important part of my life. When I knit or crochet, it provides me with a sense of nostalgia and a strong connection to family. In recent years, this has grown to include more challenging thoughts and emotions due to the loss of my Mother. The work has come to take on additional associations of unexpected change, unraveling, and mending. Each piece begins with hand knit or crocheted fabric. I utilize a combination of deconstructed garment patterns and traditional stitches to explore form. The fiber is soaked in porcelain slip to imbed the material with clay. I work intuitively during this stage to manipulate the form by cutting into the fabric, unraveling stitches, cinching and sewing. During the firing process the original fabric burns away and the porcelain solidifies. The pieces all go through some degree of transformation as a result of the burnout during firing, which causes folding, slumping, split seams and even collapse. I welcome these changes and view them as an important layer of the work. The stitches, now preserved as clay, become the structure and texture of the new object leaving behind a record of what was once there. They are objects of celebration and remembrance.