ARTIST STATEMENT
I create beautiful, thoughtful, and emotionally satisfying clay sculptures, using human and animal figures, nature imagery, and abstraction. I hand-build my sculpture from stoneware clay and build up surfaces over 3-4 firings. My work centers around the human search for authenticity and belonging. I am addressing the problem of being disconnected from the land, wild creatures, and intuition. My work also speaks to modern identity, or where we are truly at home when much of ancestral culture may have dissolved, been actively destroyed, or is one in which we do not wish to be a part. This can create a “hole” in our identity, but no matter our human history, we can find ancestors all around us- in the small and large organisms of the earth, in the trees, and the dirt. Through this “primal memory,” we can envision and foster a future of health.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Asia Mathis is a nationally exhibited artist working in Nashville, Tennessee. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Art from Middle Tennessee State University in 1999. Asia spent the next few years showing at local galleries in the Nashville area, and high end arts and craft fairs. In 2009 her first child was born and she spent the next several years full time mothering. Asia returned to studio life in 2018. Her work has been featured in the “Best of Tennessee Craft” exhibitions and others around the country. She recently completed 2 solo exhibitions at the Customs House Museum and Cultural Center in Clarksville, TN, and at the Tennessee Valley Arts Museum in Tuscumbia, AL.
© Asia Mathis