Lydia Thompson

"Promises...a work in progress"
Ceramics

March 8 - April 8 , 2008


I first laid eyes on a cotton field 10 years ago while on a recruitment trip to Hanover County in Virginia.  The cotton field was connected part of a vocational high school program.  I’ve only seen cotton fields in movies, books and photographs.  I also heard testimonies of relatives who worked the cotton fields in South Carolina.  Although their memories are painful and filled with broken promises of 40 acres and a mule, their experience is abstract to me.  My experience of earth and growth only go as far as planting flower seeds in the ground with my mother and how it brought great pleasure to both of us.

In Promises, I want the slip cast fluffy cotton forms to depict white matter against the red earthenware tiles. The first layer, Earth representing environment, cotton being the second layer, a natural resource and third layer human existence symbolized by the mask line drawings.  I’m interested in the link and departure of my ancestral legacy.  Since it is difficult to trace my ancestral background pre-America, it is known through history that the majority of slaves were from West Africa.  The various mask drawings symbolize individuality and unity.  While slavery brought harsh conditions, a common language and culture developed amongst the slaves.

This piece is “ a work in progress.”  Throughout this year, this piece will expand to 40 tiles.  The number of tiles symbolizes the promise that at the end of the civil war each slave freed would receive “40 acres and a mule.

 Lydia Thompson

As a ceramic artist, Lydia Thompson creates work that revolves around human existence and its imprint on the earth. Her images combine figurative, natural forms from the landscape and non-western architecture, evoking emotions of how humanity defines itself cross-culturally. She has a BFA in ceramics from Ohio State University, an MFA in ceramics from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, and is currently an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work has been exhibited at the Cultural Arts Center in Columbus, OH; the Smithsonian Anacostia Gallery in Washington, DC; Artspace Gallery in Richmond, VA; and the Three Rivers Arts Festival in Pittsburgh, PA. She is a Fulbright Hayes Scholar and has received a National Outstanding Young Women of America award, as well as an African American Institute Grant for Program Development.

http://www.pubinfo.vcu.edu/artweb/giving/eLeagueSept05.asp
Lydia Thompson is one of ten artists featured in the current exhibition at the Society for Contemporary Craft. COLOR: Ten African American Artists, on view through October 22, 2005, offers an opportunity to appreciate African American identity reflected through a variety of craft media, such as clay, fiber, wood and mixed materials. COLOR highlights a variety of techniques and forms, including innovative art expressions rooted in traditional craft materials, structure, processes and history, as well as art that explores unexpected relationships between craft and painting, sculpture, conceptual and installation art. The exhibition features 38 works by both emerging and established artists from eight different states, and seeks to support artists of color by presenting work representative of their diverse backgrounds and personal histories.