Glenda Guion says the artwork in her upcoming exhibition, “Archetypes: Hand Built Clay,” set for July 2 through Aug. 24 in the Solomon Gallery at the Artists Collective | Spartanburg, is intended to reflect the world around her in her life right now.
An artist’s talk will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 15, as part of Spartanburg ArtWalk.
“I have been hand building with red earthenware clay for over 40 years. For the past 11 years, I have been living on two acres of land that includes 16 magnolia trees, pines, seed pods, blueberry bushes, gravel paths, owls and the occasional snake,” Guion says. “I am currently making work that attempts to reflect where I am in the world, influenced by the beauty found in my own backyard.”
Guion’s inspiration for the exhibit was using paper patterns to create sculptural forms, vases and patterns, influenced by archetypes and the cut outs of the artist Matisse. Visitors will see a variety of hand-built clay sculptures, tiles and vases. “I hope that people make connections between modern abstract forms and universal archetypes,” she says.
Through her art, Guion says she hopes “to communicate that which surrounds me, both physically and mystically – from earth, gardens and manmade forms to archetypal symbols and theories.”
Many of the over 65 new pieces in the upcoming exhibition are inspired by mandorlas, Italian for almond, she adds. “The form refers to a shape used in religious art as the large oval that contains the representation of a single sacred figure. It is the shape created by overlapping two circles and is seen in spiritual terms as the overlap between heaven and earth, or dark and light. It is the space that contains the conflict of opposites.
“The abstract figures in my work are represented as shadows,” Guion continues. “They are at times the sculptural form itself, and at other times the portal where the figure has been transformed within the mandorla. For years I have been interested in psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s notion of the ‘Shadow.’ He describes the shadow as the place between the conscience and subconscious, or good and evil. Jung also believed that for humans ‘the shadow is the seat of creativity.’”
The art in the exhibition will be available for purchase, with prices ranging from $55 to $800.
Guion, a native of Nashville, earned her BFA in clay from Middle Tennessee State University and her MFA from Clemson University. She taught clay at the Fine Arts Center Magnet School for the Arts in Greenville for 25 years and served as the art department chair for 13 years. She was also the chairperson for the Open Studios event in Greenville for four years and is currently co-chair of the Open Doors Studio Tour Spartanburg.
Her work has been widely exhibited both regionally and nationally, receiving 13 first-place juried exhibition awards along with 15 solo exhibitions. Two reproductions of Guion’s clay sculpture are included in the book “Handbuilt Ceramics” by Kathy Triplett, and three works are published in “500 Teapots,” (Lark Books). In 2004 she published an article titled “Making an Ocean of Clay” in Pottery Making Illustrated Magazine, a publication of The American Ceramic Society (July/August issue). Her clay sculptures are included in public collections such as the South Carolina State Art Collection, the Pickens County Museum, Columbia College, Clemson University, Sumter County Museum of Art and Middle Tennessee State University.