Department of Art
My work is very much an extension of myself and the things I think about; each piece representing a different moment or feeling I’ve experienced in my life. I attempt to capture an impression of a time or a place or simply the feeling certain moments brought to me. I use wheel throwing to create basic forms that are then hand altered with strong lines and bubbly profiles. I enjoy the individuality of a hand altered piece and this working style allows me to capture the spontaneity I really enjoy in my work. The movement mimics the rise and fall of a deep breath, the pull and push of a wave, the feeling of a gentle breeze flowing all around you. These impressions are emphasized by my own personal color theory. Being born and raised in South Central Alaska, I was constantly surrounded by vast landscapes and vibrant colors. Those landscapes, the sunsets, and the northern lights are some examples of the things that influence the colorants I include in my glazes and the atmospheres under which I fire. In reality, the places and memories I attempt to immortalize in my glazes are intricate tapestries with layers of depth, while my glazes come out rather simplistically but are cerebrally familiar; meaning the moment I see in a certain piece is never the same as the moment someone else sees but the overall emotion or feeling from the piece is universally understood. They capture the moon on the snow and take me back to my birth place, the last red flash of sun as it dips below the horizon for just a moment in the land of the midnight sun, the calm turquoise of a freshly thawed lake being fed by an ancient glacier. In this way I hope to connect color with a cerebral experience that can be shared with viewers.
I am also very interested in the human form and how it relates to scenes of nature. A dimple here or an added roll there gives subtle reference to people in my life and how I view myself. I am embodied in all my pieces through this fluidity of movement and color and this malleable and transformative medium really allows me to be expressive and bring my creative ideas to life. Throwing allows me to achieve my goals of being a production potter while my throwing style assures that no two pieces are exactly identical, just as no two moments in time, scenes from nature, or any two people are exactly identical. As my profile of work grows, I want to continue to explore new functional forms, building techniques, and glaze profiles. I want to continue to find new ways to blur the line between what is functional and what is considered sculptural.
Xochiyollotl was born In Homer, Alaska in 1995. She grew up in Soldotna, Alaska spending a lot of time outdoors and around family. She graduated from Soldotna High School in 2014 before attending Humboldt State University, where she received a Bachelors in Art with a concentration in Ceramics and was certified in Museum and Gallery handling. After graduating, she entered a Master’s in Fine Arts program at the University of Alaska vlog, where she plans to graduate in Fall of 2022.
