As someone who has navigated mental health challenges since adolescence, I have found ceramics to be a somatic, meditative practice—a rare space where my mind finds stillness.
I have developed a body of work in which calabash — which I use as forms — has become my collaborator. Calabash (also known as gourds) are used in a multitude of ways and hold cultural significance across diverse traditions - including as serving dishes and utensils, musical instruments (drums, rattles, etc), canteens, and decorative objects.
This cross-material collaboration pushes ceramic practice beyond conventional methods and embraces imperfection as beauty. Each calabash brings its own irregular geometry—interior ridges, dimples, and scars that dictate the clay's final form. This process mirrors how individuals and communities are shaped by diverse encounters, carrying forward the memory of what has touched and influenced us collectively.
As a French-Canadian mother raising two sons of Bajan-Jamaican-Canadian heritage, I witness daily how cultural knowledge moves between generations and across boundaries. This body of work has become a way of exploring these intersections— to create space for dialogue between my own cultural background and those of the Caribbean diaspora.