Sheltering in Place
“A house is a home when it shelters the body and comforts the soul. “    
Phillip Moffit

Homes are eternal. They are a place of refuge from the elements: where family gather to eat and rest. They are imbued with memories of community, sharing and protection. All over the world, abodes are foundational to our essential human being. Today, in these times of uncertainty and unreliability of shelter, we are even more aware of the importance of dwellings.

Our exhibit explores dwellings both real and imaginary. We hope that our houses will speak to viewers on the many meanings of home. In these days of dislocation and pandemic we are once again reminded of how we are shaped by our relationship to our homes.

Monique Corbat-Brooks and Carol Wilkinson, ceramic artists, are long time members at the Clay Art Center in Portchester NY. They have shown their work there and elsewhere. Monique has worked with clay for over 40 years. As a retired architect, she often sees a house as a suggestion of the person inside and how they feel. Carol discovered clay about 20 years ago. Much of her work has depicted abstract structures and figures. This most recent work has grown from her personal experience of moving as well as the challenges in 2020 from needing to sequester alone.

Monique Corbat-Brooks : Artist Statement

The shapes of my ceramic houses were inspired by the thatched clay Dogon granaries in Mali and Burkina Faso villages. I loved the engaging simplicity of their shape and the meaningful items that were hung on the exterior. I found the basic simple shape of these buildings intriguing. The first time I made a similar shape in clay, it begged me to add openings or colors or additional shapes and to say something about who would live inside. What was the person in each house trying to say? My clay houses became an expression of the emotions of the person living inside and in a way by doing so they each became that person.

I started working with clay in college 50 years ago. For a few years I taught art to children and then entered a graduate program at Yale and became a registered architect. I became an artist at the Clay Art Center in Port Chester many years ago and both ceramic art and my career as an architect encouraged me to learn how spaces, openings, and colors can express the desires and needs of the person who lives inside a house. Sheltering at home this last year due to Covid19 which many of us have done has emphasized the importance of our home.

Carol Wilkinson : Artist's Statement

My work focuses on creating hand-built abstract figurative and decorative functional pieces. Much of it is informed by my love of modern dance, movement, and music. An additional influence comes from a childhood spent playing in the ancient ruins of Israel and Egypt among fallen columns and fractured mosaic surfaces, where I discovered fragments of Roman glass and shards from clay pots. Some of my forms reflect patterns from those times...quiet, calm, poised figures...ageless voices from the past. I feel with clay and dance there is a flow of form in space.

My recent move to New York City inspired my interest in houses and homes. This past year of sheltering in place has only intensified my engagement with constructing dwellings.

Trained as a physician, I specialized in employee health and safety. Now retired, I find working in clay gives me the opportunity to express more fully my creativity than was possible in medicine. For about 20 years I have studied, and shown my work at the Clay Art Center in Port Chester NY and elsewhere.