Upon meeting Margaret Boozer, you have to notice that she is surprisingly clean. Not exceptionally clean for an ordinary person, just cleaner than you would expect a woman who gleefully digs through the earth to be.
Boozer is internationally renowned for her magnificent sculptural works whose material hails from the very earth we trample on (or avoid) on a daily basis. Scouring construction sites, the areas around her studio in Mt. Ranier, Maryland, or really any place where beautiful purple, red,
grey, brown, or orange clay might be found, the gorgeously, rich earth that she excavates is later transformed, with the guidance of her hands, into stunning sculptures of various forms.
In a time when we are constantly questioning our relationship and affect on the planet, Boozer simply allows the inherent beauty of the physical earth to take center stage without judgment or self-deprecation. One cannot help but wonder, when looking closely at pieces like Dichotomy of Dirt (see image above), where the beauty of this clay, soil, and earth came from. In this wonderment, it is a startling realization to acknowledge that such beauty has always existed. We just haven’t been looking for it.
Of course, it is Boozer’s impeccable skill and technique that allow her to recognize and exalt the beauty of the dried or fired earth that she works with. In her art, there appears a glorious combination of the artist’s intent and the material’s own agenda, or, to use Boozer’s own words “control” and “chaos.” Boozer will begin a crack in the clay, but then allow the clay’s natural drying process to take over and complete its journey across the slab.
Whether in the colorful, intricate clay disks of Dichotomy of Dirt, the contemplative, delicate cracks of Winter Landscape, or the self-contained dirt drawing so beautiful that even the most diligent janitor would refuse to sweep it up, the beauty of the earth and the ground that we walk on, plant in, dig up, is exalted with sincere respect and admiration on the part of this artist.
Margaret Boozer’s work, Winter Landscape, can be viewed at the Wilson Building’s permanent City Hall Collection entitled “HeArt of DC,” located at 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. The Luce Center of the Smithsonian American Art Museum currently has her work Eight Red Bowls on display. Soon, Grapeseed Bistro in Bethesda will house her largest wall sculpture to date. Boozer is also collaborating with designer Darryl Carter to create custom steel and concrete shelving for private residences. A solo exhibition of her work will open at the Project 4 gallery in December.
For more information on Margaret Boozer and Red Dirt Studio, where she directs a seminar on sculpture and ceramics, visit http://www.margaretboozer.com.
In a time when we are constantly questioning our relationship and affect on the planet, Boozer simply allows the inherent beauty of the physical earth to take center stage without judgment or self-deprecation. One cannot help but wonder, when looking closely at pieces like Dichotomy of Dirt (see image above), where the beauty of this clay, soil, and earth came from. In this wonderment, it is a startling realization to acknowledge that such beauty has always existed. We just haven’t been looking for it.
Of course, it is Boozer’s impeccable skill and technique that allow her to recognize and exalt the beauty of the dried or fired earth that she works with. In her art, there appears a glorious combination of the artist’s intent and the material’s own agenda, or, to use Boozer’s own words “control” and “chaos.” Boozer will begin a crack in the clay, but then allow the clay’s natural drying process to take over and complete its journey across the slab.
Whether in the colorful, intricate clay disks of Dichotomy of Dirt, the contemplative, delicate cracks of Winter Landscape, or the self-contained dirt drawing so beautiful that even the most diligent janitor would refuse to sweep it up, the beauty of the earth and the ground that we walk on, plant in, dig up, is exalted with sincere respect and admiration on the part of this artist.
Margaret Boozer’s work, Winter Landscape, can be viewed at the Wilson Building’s permanent City Hall Collection entitled “HeArt of DC,” located at 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. The Luce Center of the Smithsonian American Art Museum currently has her work Eight Red Bowls on display. Soon, Grapeseed Bistro in Bethesda will house her largest wall sculpture to date. Boozer is also collaborating with designer Darryl Carter to create custom steel and concrete shelving for private residences. A solo exhibition of her work will open at the Project 4 gallery in December.
For more information on Margaret Boozer and Red Dirt Studio, where she directs a seminar on sculpture and ceramics, visit http://www.margaretboozer.com.
Posts
