Mountain Gorillas Recumbent Ring Teapot
8" tall x 13" wide x 11" deep
Soon after I began making
upright ring teapots, I started to think about ways to vary the
teapot composition and upright format. Here I made a round cross-section
ring, and when is was still soft but stiff enough to handle without
denting, I picked up one side and draped it over some sponges wrapped
in plastic. I sculpted an adult silverback mountain gorilla figure
and positioned it as if it were holding up the curved recumbent
ring, and perched a juvenile gorilla figure on the lid. I glazed
the teapot in bands of brown and gray over the bronze green matt,
to suggest the highland grassy jungle habitat of the vegetarian
African mountain gorillas. I did not return to this recumbent
ring teapots idea until I later tried orienting reassembled
ring teapot compositions in horizontal formats, but this was an
early idea variation I would return to in my later sculptural work.
This teapot was also accepted in the National Teapot Show
III, held at the Cedar Creek Gallery in Creedmoor, North Carolina,
July-September 1996.
This teapot was damaged beyond repair in a later exhibition and
is unavailable.
|