Works in progress - Spirit Animals and other wall hangings

I'm pretty excited about this new body of work I've started; it was inspired by the call for submissions for the upcoming Halloween show at Swoon ("Spectre").  In thinking about "ghost animals" I did some reading online about different animals of mythological significance, and set to work on the following wall hangings.  Everything is carved and drying, the plan is to glaze these all Chun white at Cone 6:

White Buffalo

"Spirit Bear" (a white bear found in BC)

White Rabbit

White Stag

I'd like to make more animals in this series and am looking at different symbols I could carve on to them.  The spirals reference the cosmic spiral, and the 8 pointed stars inadvertently reference the Star of Lakshmi (Hindu goddess of wealth and beauty).   The next ones I make may include some drawing of sacred geometry on animals of significance in Chinese Feng Shui. I'm excited about this body of work because I've been getting away from the trap of becoming a 'production' potter, and slowing down in my practice and treating each piece more meditatively.  Each piece presents an opportunity to calm myself down, there's something compelling about the ability to trap the energy of these intentions into matter.


Here are a few other wall hanging animals I've started, these will have more colours.

flying snowy owl and smaller bear

ring necked pheasant