Garden of Desires

May 31 - June 28, 2023, Artists & Makers Studios Gallery, Rockville, MD

Our lives are filled with desires—wishes for things that are both fantastical and mundane. Some desires grow and take root becoming lifelong goals. Others last merely as long as a puff on a dandelion. As a gardener, the metaphor of the garden as a reflection of life is ever present, where living organisms thrive in the right environment, wither when neglected, and sometimes fail, even when all is done correctly. Our desires are much the same. Some desires are carefully cultivated, cherished, and doted over until they bloom. Others are weeds, insidious and devouring. Occasionally, they are cut at their peak, dying when we most wanted them. Then there are those that are merely forgotten, evaporating like a morning mist.

In this show, the figure of the rabbit represents a childhood obsession—an unfulfilled desire to possess and love something cuddly and vulnerable. In clay the rabbits symbolize all the things I desired but could not have. Their place in the garden is both magical and destructive, simultaneously embodying dreams and disappointment.

As a diver the ocean garden, realm of the octopus, is a place of submersion, buoyancy, and wonder. It is a vast, undiscovered world beneath the surface where our desire for adventure and escape is answered. Here the noise of the world above is silenced, revealing a brilliant visual symphony that we can experience only in measured breaths. But it also reflects a world in peril and embodies a personal desire to find ways to preserve what could be lost irrevocably. The ocean garden answers our desire to be immersed in the moment, keenly aware of our limitations and broadly open to a hidden world.

Laurel Lukaszewski, 2023

A note about the works in this show

I primarily use two mid-fire (Cone 6) clays—an English Grolleg porcelain and a black stoneware—fired  in an electric kiln. All the figures are hand-built. The pottery is wheel thrown. The white designs on the black pieces are drawn freehand with porcelain slip on greenware (unfired clay). The blue and black designs are drawn and painted by hand in underglaze on bisqueware (partially fired clay), covered in clear glaze, and refired to Cone 6.

With thanks to the Maryland State Arts Council (msac.org) for their support through the 2023 Grants for Artists program.