Pentimenti: Ceramic funerary vessels as biographies of spiritual homecomings, Spring 2023

As artist in residence at CSRS, I’ve been collecting a number of biographies of people in the Uvic area from different cultural and religious backgrounds who experienced a spiritual homecoming near the end of life. At the same time I’ve been creating urns which express something of the uniqueness of each person’s story. Some are deeply joyful. Others express profound spiritual pain. All are worthy of contemplation in considering our own mortality and what might make for a good death.

I was scheduled to give a public lecture at CSRS (40 minutes + 15 minutes discussion) on my work thus far, earlier this April, 2023. Here is the video. Enjoy!

Pentimenti: Artist’s residency at CSRS, U Victoria, Fall 2022

Arriving and settling in

I thought I’d begin an account so far of my artist’s residency out here at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society (CSRS) at Uvic in Victoria BC which began in September and which lasts for a year.

Why am I here? My project is about creating urns that reflect biographies of people who have experienced some kind of return to their spiritual roots before death or after a major crisis in their life. So there will be research to do to find a variety of such biographies, from different times and cultures. There is also the creation of a number of urns as my “canvases.” And there will be the experimentation with glazes and other treatments to create the impression of what is old and hidden underneath, reappearing on the surface. The project is entitled Pentimenti, which is among other things an art term to refer to this phenomenon of the reappearance over time of layers underneath, like a sketch or underpainting, in old oil paintings. If you aren’t familiar with my project, here’s a download link to the Centre’s most recent newsletter (see page 10).

I’ve been here a little over a month now, and have settled in to my living arrangements, the pattern of attending the daily coffee talks at CSRS, along with about 20 other fellows, from around the world and ranging from seasoned scholars to grad students)… and, finding my way into doing ceramics in different studios.

As for the CSRS, some days the coffee talks are in person, other times on zoom, especially if the speaker is zooming in from Belgium, England, or another continent. And there is a weekly public lecture on Thursday at 5pm. (I am to give a public lecture on my work at the Centre on 6 April 2023. I’ll send the link when the time comes.) Current fellows are supposed to be attending as much as possible, but there are also many people who have been fellows other years who attend at times. The CSRS has developed an immense and varied extended community of scholars and artists. Great people! The coffee talk photographed below was of a group of us who went out to a local cemetery (in the rain!) to have a conversation, led by Ambreen (second from left), a Pakistani Muslim associate fellow, about our attitudes toward death!

Coffee walk at CSRS at a nearby cemetery to talk about death

For the moment, my office at CSRS lies waiting to be used, but currently, as I need a wheel to throw urns, I go elsewhere to get down and dirty with clay. Here is the office, with vinyl laid over the carpet, to make clean up much easier, once I have ceramics in an advanced enough state to work with there!

My office at CSRS

I thought at first that I would work entirely out of a private studio. But the private studio I have access to is in a shed! I am enjoying Lauren’s shed which I share with the garden tools and Lauren’s cats and dogs. The weather until a few days ago has been quite warm, and as you may know although this is considered to be the rainy season, the west coast had not had rain for over 100 days… That has just changed. We’ll see how feasible this is as the cold, wet weather sets in...

Lauren’s shed!

I am also fortunate to have a place in an open studio session at the Cedar Hills Art Centre, from 7:30 - 10:30 am two days a week… The photo below may explain why it’s so hard to get a place. As ceramic studios go, it is really well equipped, spacious, warm (!) and the daylight is delightful. Online registrations for the spring season will come up at the beginning of December, and I will have to be all set, because within five minutes they are all snapped up. Pottery is big out here. I’m told CBC even does a thing called “Mugshot” to feature a potter once a week!

Cedar Hill Ceramics Centre

So as you can see, I’m getting organized, but there is much more to do. I am beginning to do research at the library, and identifying different kinds of biographies of people who have a connection with a religious tradition in which they have suffered some kind of persecution or, as is more the case in North America, have simply abandoned their tradition.

At some point, I’ll have a meeting with Uvic professor of nursing and palliative care nurse, Kerri Stadjudar, and with spiritual care workers in palliative care units, who I hope will lead me toward families in which someone has died or is currently dying and is experiencing a spiritual return to their roots.

Btw, if you know of anyone who has, or had this experience please get in contact with me!