Ariel Bowman
Artist Website Link

Snarl

cone 04 hand-built, earthenware, wax encaustic, antique footstool

12" x 12" x 12"
2016

$975

I make ceramic sculptures of prehistoric animals that represent a lost world. I am intrigued by animals that evolved with distinct features, such as unfamiliar tusks, strange elongated limbs, and unusual proportions. My pieces are a way of bringing these extinct animals back to life. This enormous scavenger called Andrewsarchus existed 45 million years ago. Such an extinct giant represents the depth of Earth’s geologic time, and the idea of a world without us. The nineteenth century foot stool brings the animal into human history, and disrupts the idea of anthropocentric time. The turn of the century and the industrial revolution caused people to lose much of their everyday contact with animals and nature. This fantasy scene inspires a sense of wonder and curiosity about the unknown animal, and rekindles a childlike fascination with the natural world.

Ariel Bowman earned her BFA in ceramics from Kansas City Art Institute, studied abroad at the International Ceramics Studio in Hungary, and was awarded the Regina K. Brown NCECA undergraduate Fellowship. She has been an artist in residence at the Armory Art Center, and her work has been collected by the Kamm Teapot Foundation, the Belger Arts Center, and the Kolva-Sullivan Collection. Ariel is currently a fellowship recipient and graduate student in ceramics at the University of Florida.