Like illustrations from a modern day fairy tale, my sculptures blur lines between whimsical fantasy and the realities of everyday life.
 
As a mother, and former child, the stories, cartoons and toys that are a daily part of my life influence my imagery and narratives.  The works of the Grimm brothers, Hans Christian Andersen, Walt Disney, and Carlo Collodi have influenced my recent pieces.  The moments from the stories I choose to reimagine act as familiar doorways to altered characters and personal symbolism.
 
Filtered through the lense of timeless tales, my portraits preserve unique likenesses and explore psychological and emotional identity.  I use my family and myself as models to consider typically impersonal archetypes: the wicked woman, the conflicted hero, lost siblings and determined children.  A struggle for independence, a desire to nurture and protect, and a strong sense of vulnerability have become recurrent themes and emotions in both life and art. 
 
Familiar ceramic interpretations of the figure such as porcelain figurines, kitsch tchotchkes and decorative plates, have often historically served the purpose of idealizing and sentimentalizing life.  I am interested in using the ceramic medium as a vehicle to reflect and document a complicated, imperfect contemporary humanity.  Paradoxes I explore in my art reflect the paradoxes I observe in people.  Physically, the delicate fragility of clay, like the body, is balanced by strength and durability.  Conflict, fear and anxiety balance the pretty, cute and sweet.  By contrasting the expected content of both ceramic figures and magical fairy tales with subversive and personal undertones, I am interested in preserving some of the present time’s beauty and imperfections.
 
 
Colleen Sidey