Catherine Jo Morgan - Art for Energy™

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Vessels, Bowls, Bowl Sculptures

Vessels, Bowls, Bowl Sculptures?

Vessel Sculptures?

I use all three terms interchangeably, although "vessels" is so broad a term that it includes the paper medicine bags.

"Vessel" is a terms used in art, to describe a kind of sculpture that is formed like a container. In everyday life, "vessel" has wonderful connotations too. A vessel can be a means of traveling over the water - and thus by metaphor, of traveling over the sea of emotion. A vessel can be a kind of medium through which something creative and powerful can flow - as in a "vessel for the Holy Spirit." The Chalice on the altar is a vessel.

"Bowl" is a term I love because it feels more down to earth than "vessel." In my everyday life, I think of my sculptures as bowls. "I'm going to go make my bowls." "Certain bowls want to be made by me." And "bowl" too has its own wonderful connotations. The empty bowl is a symbol of going on a pilgrimage, a sacred journey, open to the gifts of life. A bowl is usually the first food container a baby sees, if the baby has been nursed at the mother's breast. A bowl is a powerful symbol of nourishment, emptied and refilled over and over throughout life.

What's a bowl sculpture?

"Bowl sculpture" and "vessel sculpture" are my own terms for the sculptures I make that center around the bowl or vessel form. These sculptures are more than bowls, more than vessels. Yet they certainly focus on the bowl or vessel form. Each sculpture includes at least one bowl or vessel form.

This is my primary medium of artistic expression.

Spinoffs from the bowl sculptures

My other artwork I consider "spinoffs" from the bowl sculptures. The paintings and cards and collages are ways to play with color, practice pieces for painting and collaging bowls. These are simply a joy to make.

The medicine bags are spinoffs from a sculpture I worked on all during 1996. That piece included a medicine bag. I loved making it. Its meaning was profound for me. So I made more.

At times I've made playful iron hooks as well. I call these "Wild Woman Hooks." I form these playfully, so each one is unique. I smooth them and make sure they hang well on a wall, then paint them - sometimes in black, often in wild joyful colors.

Your pleasure, your attractions

Whatever these artworks are called, whatever they mean to me, it's their meaning to you that matters in the end. Either a piece calls to you now, or it doesn't. May you trust your attractions now and always.

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