Nature can be seen in clay form in the exhibition "Emergence" by Sharon Brush at Artspace 116.
"They are the most direct imagery," Brush said of her artwork. "They are botanically inspired forms."
The small parts of nature that many tend to overlook are what inspire her work, she said.
"Beautiful forms like seed pods or emerging forms (inspire me)," she said. "A lot of my pieces are layered. They are multiple pieces that are nestled inside of each other and I want them to have that feeling of an old shell breaking away to something new."
Brush, a Gila resident who creates hand-built clay vessels, found her passion for nature when she was in graduate school.
"In 1997, I went to graduate school at the Rhode Island School of Design, living in a downtown urban environment. I have always lived in rural places," Brush said. "I started collecting seed pods and leaves just to give me that little hit of nature in my studio since I didn't have it outside and that started inspiring my work."
Now, Brush works exclusively from her home studio in Gila.
"It absolutely has its advantages to me because I tend to work way into the night," she said. "When I have my studio away from my home, it inhibits that."
Brush said she has found it is easier to concentrate and she enjoys working late at night into the early morning.
"There's something about the late night hours when everything is completely quiet and there are no phone calls or interruptions," Brush said. "... That tends to be my most productive time between 8 p.m. and 3 a.m., the peak performance."
Brush often works long hours on her clay pieces. Each time-consuming piece can take between four days to several weeks to complete, she said.
"Most all of the pieces, the large ones, are completely hand built," Brush said. "It's a combination of slab, coil and pinch construction methods."
The vessels that Brush creates, which sell for $75 to $2,000, are mostly created for decorative purposes. However, many find practical uses for her work, she said.
"I make them, at least all the large pieces, purely decorative," she said. "But often times people do use them. They take out the center of the piece and put in dried flowers and use them as a vase, so they can be functional."
The smaller pieces Brush creates are often made to be vases and are commonly used to hold flower arrangements, she said.
Even if the vessel is not a functional piece, Brush hopes to get her message across to each viewer.
"I hope (viewers) get maybe a sense of centered peacefulness looking at them," she said. "A quietness, and yet also something kind of piquing the reverence for nature."
If You Go
WHAT: "Emergence" by Sharon Brush
WHEN: Reception 5-9 p.m. today and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday
WHERE: Artspace 116, 116 Central SW
