Thea Tyroler (she/her)

Clay speaks to me. Within it I see an ocean of potential in which I've barely dipped a toe. What I love most about making ceramics is the freedom. I feel like a kid in a candy store when I step into the glaze room. By experimenting with new glazes and new techniques, I find myself growing as a potter with every new piece. I've come to believe that the best way to learn is through failure, so by constantly experimenting with my pieces, I'm just expediting the learning process. My interest in subjects for my work is ever evolving, the only constant being conflict. Exploring duality and balance, I often find myself understanding more clearly my own problems, and what steps I need to take. For this piece I wanted to explore my identity as a transgender woman, but I wanted to focus on transgender identity as a whole. The tree represents our internal experiences that give us both joy and pain. The left side is the feminine, and the right side the masculine. The water represents the external support from our community and the world as a whole, and the walls represent all of the people that try to stop us from living our lives and the little things that tear us down every day. I also collaborated with many other trans people in my community, they contributed their own words and phrases personal to them.