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Deborah Rael-Buckley: Narrative
Ceramic Sculptures Combine Fashion, Culture, Ancestral
Memories
Deborah Rael-Buckley |
“RELEASED SPIRIT” 47”t x
19”w x 12”d
Ceramic sculpture with glazes and acrylics
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Deborah Rael-Buckley's
narrative ceramic sculptures are explorations of memory.
Her ancestors have been in this part of the world for
over 400 years, having left Spain in the late 16th
century, and her sculptures are often investigations of
personal and familial memory which were lost over time.
Says Rael-Buckley, "I
think I am obsessed with memory because my family never
kept heirlooms or family effects, only a few more recent
photos, which made me dream up possible memories and
histories for my ancestors."
She is a sculptor from
Taos whose work mainly focuses on dress forms. The dress
forms are her favorite to work with she says, because
they’re often mostly full sized and relate more to the
human experience. Dresses or clothing represents who we
are or who we wish to be and relate specific narratives
meant to inform others.
“TIEMPO PERDIDO” (Lost Time)
53”t x 14”w x 16”d Ceramic sculpture with
glazes, acrylics and inglaze decals
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“PROOF” 44”T X 17”W X 12”D
Ceramic sculpture with glazes and acrylics
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“AUSENCIA” (Absence)
38”t x 16”w x 12”d Ceramic sculpture with
glazes, acrylics and wooden hands
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Rael-Buckley reuses a
vocabulary of imagery on the forms which, when read all
together, present a personal memory. Sacred hearts,
bones, branches, cacti, ropes, trees, DNA spirals often
enter into her works and are culturally significant. She
works with clay because as she says, "it contains its
own 'geological DNA'; when broken to its smallest pieces
it can still be determined what type of clay it is,
where it came from, how it was used, etc."
The imagery, surfaces and negative spaces all relate to
aspects of memory. This is the basis of her work. From
the clay body, to the time-worn surfaces and negative
spaces in the fully realized sculptures, memory remains
her focus.
Rael-Buckley was born in
New Mexico in 1953, but she did not begin taking courses
in art history at the University of New Mexico in
Albuquerque until 1987. She transferred to the
University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC), where she was
awarded the McNee Foundation Award, and took a degree
with honors in the history of art and architecture in
1994, graduating Phi Beta Kappa.
After a move to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, she began taking
several introductory courses in studio arts and
uncovered a profound interest in ceramics and sculpture;
she transferred to the Peck School of the Arts at the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UW-M). In 1996 she
took a three-month course of study abroad in Cortona,
Italy, concentrating on bronze casting and ceramic
sculpture. In 2000 she was awarded her MFA by UW-M,
along the way being awarded the Layton Special
Achievement Award, AOP Fellowship, and the Layton
Graduate Fellowship.
Rael-Buckley has exhibited nationally and
internationally most recently in Brussels, Belgium where
she lived and worked for two years. While in Brussels
she exhibited at Galerie 94 and had her work published
in Ceramica 02: A Guide to Belgian Ceramics (Editions
Armature Uitvegerij, 2002). Other published works
include numerous articles in Ceramics Monthly, Santa
Fean Magazine, Art Collector Magazine, Tempo Magazine,
Southwest Art Magazine, Hispanic Magazine, Clay Times
Magazine, American Craft Magazine and the prestigious
international ceramics journal in Australia, Ceramics
Art and Perception. She is also a published writer,
educator, and independent curator, who has recently
developed her first successful exhibition entitled
HYBRID NATION in Scottsdale, Arizona.
She returned to New Mexico in 2003 after being away for
13 years and has since been the recipient of many
prestigious awards. She participated in her first
Contemporary Hispanic Market in 2005 where was awarded
Best in Show and Best in Ceramics. Her piece entitled
“Visitation” was purchased by the State of New Mexico
and it is permanently installed in the Toney Anaya
Building in Santa Fe. The National Museum of Mexican Art
in Chicago and the National Hispanic Cultural Museum
have included her sculptures in their permanent
collections. In 2008, her piece entitled Past-Present
was awarded Best in Mixed Media by Taos Fall Arts
Exhibition. Her work has been added to several important
American contemporary ceramics collections, among them
the Sara and David Lieberman collection and the Sandy
and Diane Besser collection of contemporary American
ceramics. She lives and works in Taos, NM. Her work can
be seen privately in her studio by appointment, or at
Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe.
Read more on her work
www.deborahraelbuckley.com |
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