Glasshouse: Uprooted and Reconnected

Veronica Barrera, Senior Art Thesis Exhibition

Welcome to Veronica Barrera's online showcase.

Artist Statement 

Before we were all home-bound and immersed in this new age of working from home and e- learning, I was experimenting with dyeing my own clay bodies and utilizing form and texture to make plant-focused sculpture. Due to the combination of school going online, shelter-in-place orders being issued, and my mother doing her best to quarantine my grandmother as she goes through chemo, my sister, Misa, and I packed our bags and fled for our hometown: Houston, Texas. Consequently, all of these changes left me without a kiln. Not having access to a kiln, I had to get creative. This experience gave me the opportunity to adapt my work to my childhood medium of choice: fiber.

Plants have remained consistent as my general subject matter. These plants are inspired from the plant life I grew up around whether that was in Houston, Texas or Monterrey, Mexico. As I internalize the situation at hand, I’m revisiting things that are familiar, yet have felt distant for so long: Houston and fiber art.

It has been incredibly important to me to try to relate fiber to the way I was working in the ceramics studio. In an effort to do so, I have done things like experiment with natural fabric dyeing processes to reference the color tests I was running at school, utilize the tactile nature of needle felting to try to reference the way I used to hand build, and continue to experiment with color gradation with things such as embroidery string. Color gradation was a component I was just starting to incorporate into my pieces right before we all had to go home.

About the Artist

Veronica grew up as the fifth of six children near the humid bayous of Houston, Texas. Growing up, she often spent her time excavating “dinosaur bones” and “ancient artifacts” in the backyard, memorizing the names and traits of as many plants and animals as she could, and making her own stuffed animals and elaborate Shrinky-Dink earrings. To the surprise and confusion of both her peers and second grade teacher, Veronica dressed up as a paleontologist for her second grade play, “What I Want to Be When I Grow Up.” Veronica’s interest in and love for the ancient world, dirt, and making, all made sense when she was introduced to ceramics in college.

Focusing on ceramics, Veronica majored in Studio Art at the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas. These days, she primarily makes ceramic sculpture while dabbling in different mediums like printmaking and fiber art. Striving to use art as means to internalize and express the world around her and her place in it, her work pulls from the plants and wildlife that surround her. Follow her artistic journey on Veronica's Instagram page @veronica.maria.studio. 

For all the images in the exhibition visit here. 

GALLERY OF WORK

  Lithophyte I

₂₀₂₀

_{ceramic set on gravel, (8.5” x 4” x 4”)}  

Unearthed

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_{ceramic set on gravel, (7” x 3” x 4”)} 

  Lithophyte III,

₂₀₂₀

_{old sock, polyester fiber fill, paperclips, white roving, avocado-dyed muslin cloth, plain muslin cloth, sewing string, embroidery string, set on gravel, (6.5” x 5” x 7.5”)} 

Lithophyte V

₂₀₂₀

_{old sock, polyester fiber fill, paperclips, avocado-dyed roving, plain muslin cloth, sewing string, embroidery string, set on gravel, (4.75” x 4.5” x 3.75”)}

Lithophyte Taking Root

₂₀₂₀

_{old sock, polyester fiber fill, paperclips, onionskin-dyed roving, avocado dyed muslin cloth, sewing string, embroidery string, glass terrarium, gravel, (5.5” x 4.75” x 8.5”)} 

For all the images in the exhibition Glasshouse: Uprooted and Reconnected visit here.