Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Valerie Seaberg's Work

The Amanyara Collection
Coral Wave
Hand built porcelain wave form, Raku fired
woven with horse hair & waxed thread.
15 X15 X 7 in.
Earth Wave
Hand built clay wave form, carved, sagger fired
& woven with pine needles.
11 x 22in.

The Amanyara Collection

Coral Form

Hand built clay wave impressed with fossils and coral.

Woven with horse hair & waxed thread.

15 x 6 in.

Fossil Bed Platter

Hand built, impressed with trilobites,

fossils & shelf mushroom. Pit fired.

24in. Ancient Wave

Clay wave impressed with fossils & coral.

Sagger fired. Woven with horse hair & waxed thread.
12 x 25 x 22in.

Available at www.theartspiritgallery.com

The Amanyara Collection

Twig Vessel

Hand built pinch pot, pit fired and woven with

a cottonwood branch.

5 x 7in.

The Amanyara Collection

Snake River Stone Basket

Long Leaf Pine needles coiled with waxed thread.

16 x 16in.

River Stone Basket
Long leaf pine needles woven around a Snake River Stone.
15x15in.

Mexican Pine Basket

Bull Kelp & mica center, woven with Mexican pine needles.

14 x14in.

Cellular Wave

Hand built wave impressed with fossils, naked Raku resist.

Woven with horse hair & waxed thread.

16 x 7in.

Sea Anemone Wave

Hand built clay form impressed with sea anemone,

glazed & woven with pine needles.

22 x 24 in.Forest Form

Hand built clay wave form impressed with self mushroom

& woven with long leaf pine needles.

22 x 14in. Work of the Heart

Hand built clay form, pit fired & woven with long leaf pine needles.

22 x 10in.

Mushroom Wave

Hand built form impressed with shelf mushroom

woven with pine needles & waxed thread.

10 x 6in. Reef Life

Hand built, impressed with ocean life.

Pit fired & woven with horse hair.

14 x6in.

A Fine Balance
Hand build clay wave, pit fired and papered with a hornets nest & woven with horse hair.
19 x 20in.

Available from the artist at vseaberg@aol.com

Valerie Seaberg Contact Information

Valerie Seaberg
307-413-3387
vseaberg@aol.com

Valerie Seaberg Bio

“I am continually inspired by the knowledge that I practice an ancient artistry, creating objects at once functional and sacred. Intact indigenous cultures all over the world still weave and fire their work as I do. That art has provided beauty and sustainability from the first moment. I see myself as standing in a long, line of artisans creating these vessels. As time moves forward, my work will become a part of the natural evolution of this art’s history."

Wyoming artist Valerie Seaberg describes herself as “an ocean child” destined for mountain life. Her mixed media vessels are like great, tumbled beachcombing finds, undulating clay forms encircled by pine needles or horsehair. They are high country marriages between an ancient ocean and raw land. Valerie Seaberg's works are muscular, sensual and convey a deep sense of time, earth, and element.

Seaberg discovered basket making while living and teaching in a remote northern California healing arts school. She was thrilled to craft vessels from the grasses at her feet. “Coiling is slow art. It takes a long time to express an idea and to see the movement of a form realized. It is both meticulous and profoundly meditative work. I enjoy teaching this craft to others as I believe slow art to be one of the antidotes to the franticness of modern life.” A desire to work more spontaneously led Seaberg to working in clay. She began replacing basket centers with clay forms. The hand built centerpieces became so large that they are now an integral part of her work.

“With clay, I feel unfettered. I can express ideas with great energy and relative ease. It is currently the great love of my life.” “Art making has been a source of incredible joy. I am amazed at my good fortune to be doing the work of an artist. I love that my job entails spending whole days down by the river harvesting or hunkered down next to a smoking pit fire. I am grateful for the way this work surprises and informs me, and always leads me to points as yet unknown. My intention as an artist and as a person is to look at the world with curious eyes and to be guided by the natural intelligence of the art process.” Seaberg, welcomes risk as an essential learning tool. Risk brings exploration, and exploration, illumination. Valerie Seaberg’s intimate art springs from her ever-inquisitive mind and heart. In all her endeavors Valerie Seaberg joyously bears discovery’s weight.