Jennifer Rochlin, American, born 1968
Creek Fire, 2017
Jennifer Rochlin’s clay sculpture is a product of her emotions surrounding the growth in fires around her California residence, with this piece specifically recalling the Creek Fire in the winter of 2017. On the clay, she depicts horses, birds, mountain lions, and other animals, inspired by the 29 ranch horses that were killed in the flames. Rochlin explains that the abstract etches on the outside of the clay are a visual representation, and an actual product, of her anxiety during the fire and the fear and sadness that fills her as she hears fire stories like this. To round out the symbolic nature of the piece she writes, “It’s sad and poetic somehow that you fire the clay to solidify the marks.” She uses art in this instance to represent the Creek Fire in an expressionistic way, as well to represent her own emotions and difficulty coping with these fires in California. Label by Maeve Marsh