Flat Clay Works
My practice moves across photography, ceramics, drawing, research, and installation, forming an interdisciplinary language rooted in image-making but expanded through material exploration. Originally grounded in photography, this body of work investigates how images can migrate across mediums, transforming from visual documents into physical objects that carry memory, place, and cultural meaning. Technically, the works emerge through layered, almost alchemical processes in which multiple stages of transformation are fused into a single final form.
Central to this research are questions of identity, territory, and belonging, particularly within a world shaped by movement, migration, and environmental change. Through my work I explore how personal history and collective memory reconnect us to the land, revealing the deep and evolving relationship between humans and nature. The objects that emerge from this process act as symbolic vessels—holding cultural narratives, ecological awareness, and traces of lived experience.
The act of sourcing raw earth in situ from these explored and personally significant territories is an essential component of the work, reinforcing its connection to place and to the chosen images intentionally reflected in each piece. The impressions are created by solidifying the image in relief, forming a miniature three-dimensional landscape that becomes both sculptural and textural, adding another dimensional layer to the work. Many of the pieces are later pit-fired in a hand-dug hole in the ground using different types of collected wood and organic materials such as banana peels, nuts, orange skins, salt, coffee, sugar, and minerals including copper and cobalt. The aesthetic results emerge spontaneously through the firing process itself. Variations in temperature, wood selection, mineral reactions, and the positioning of the pieces within the pit produce unpredictable tonal surfaces and markings, making each work unique.
This body of work forms part of a larger project structured in chapters that examine the geographical, social, and ecological dimensions of identity. Drawing on ecofeminist thought, the work constructs a narrative in which nature, memory, and the body become intertwined. Earth itself becomes both material and metaphor, reflecting cycles of transformation and the elemental forces that sustain life. The project is rooted in the landscapes of the Sierra del Segura in Spain and North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, regions connected to my maternal and paternal lineage. Their geological histories and present vulnerabilities—marked by erosion, climate change, and rural abandonment—form an important conceptual foundation. Natural elements such as rivers, birds, and rock formations appear as recurring motifs, suggesting territories that exist beyond borders and reminding us of the shared ecological systems that shape human existence. While nature plays a central role, cultural symbols and human traces are also present within the imagery.
Within this framework, photography functions as a point of departure rather than a final form. Images originating from photographic observation become part of a broader dialogue between image, material, and landscape, where the photograph evolves into an object that embodies time, place, and transformation. Through this process, the work shifts from representation toward artifact, inviting reflection on how memory, territory, and nature are continuously rewritten across generations and geographies.
