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Noah Terrill

NOAH TERRILL
Garden
Ceramics, mixed media
5,000-full work; $60-1 large log; $70-bundle of 2 to 4 sticks

Email museum@westmont.edu for purchasing inquiries

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21

My work serves as an ode to life and death -- an interrogation of earthly things: materialism, philosophies, opinions, and the contemplation of faith and eternal treasures. My sculpture is an abstracted fort that evokes memories of my childhood and sensations of comfort, belonging, and security. It serves as a meditation on the beauty of what we all seek to build through life, and, eventually, what we leave behind.

My sculptural construction is built from ceramic life-size sticks, which symbolically evoke the emotional foundation and walls, which we build during our lives. The sticks are suspended so that the viewer can carefully analyze and contemplate the details within each piece. The logs serve as a metaphor for the individual moments we share in a lifetime and the way these moments “construct” who we are and how we build our identities. Viewers will discover signs of deterioration in these sticks, which accentuate the fleeting nature of life and the one inevitable thing we all will face one day—death. I created an environment that resonates with the sensations of both home and safety. The vacancies between the sticks represent our passing from this life; the voids also accentuate the beauty of what remains.

-Noah Terrill

Garden (detail)
Ceramics, mixed media
5,000-full work; $60-1 large log; $70-bundle of 2 to 4 sticks