Holly Grey Ceramics

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My current body of work, “How the West Was Won,” is a direct correlation between where I grew up in Kansas, a few miles from the Oregon Trail, and the folk stories of “The Great Western Migration.” I utilize “Western” motifs and iconography in slip-casted forms as a metaphor for industrialization and “Manifest Destiny” driving Western expansion. These ideas juxtapose with my interest in Indigenous cultures, culminating in the narrative of my work. 

I use thick glazes, pottery shards, sand, dirt, and other found materials to cover and subdue the pristine cast forms. My intention as a ceramic artist is to show the significant consequence this migration had on demographics, ecology, economics, and politics shaping the United States into its modern form.