Cory Fusick – junior, business major, from Portland OR
Young-Fell Memorial Intern: Cory Fusick
Cory Fusick – junior, business major, from Portland OR
I’ m drawn to clay’ s intimacy and functional history rooted in community. Early pots were storage and cooking vessels. When I join in the making process I feel drawn back to the inherent creative spark we have as people. I am interested in expressing through clay the human relationships, faith, conflict, and flourishing that are illuminated clearly by the unquantifiable nature of art.
Techniques I keep returning to are faceting and stretching my pieces to achieve distressed, torn, and rough surfaces. With functional pieces, I communicate the precision, movement, and immediacy involved in the making process. Through my metaphoric and sculptural pieces, I draw people’ s attention to the dissonance between our world as it currently is and our world as it ought to be, by exploring themes of repentance, social justice, and globalism.
Through clay, I’ ve found a voice to what is most important to me, giving all that excites or upsets me a physical space in this world. In a more grounded sense, I’ m honored when my functional ware enriches daily lives— early morning coffee to after dinner dessert.
In society we’ re allowed some degree of creativity, but always within constraints. The more I work with my hands, the more these limitations fade away— replaced by an authentic expression that is uniquely my own, allowing my mind the space needed to think creatively so things I value are manifested. This act of“ returning to one’ s self” enables the creative thought that gave us science and technology in the first place.
52 ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE