artist statement

Family Portrait: Liz, Chris. Anna

Liz Largent

Family Portrait is a work that for me explores the ideas of home and family. I have always been inspired by the natural beauty of Michigan, my birthplace, and by my family life there.  Family Portrait is a body of work that explores my family; Michigan and what makes me as an individual feel at home both in Michigan and my current home of Missouri.

They arrangement of the tiles in Liz, Chris and Anna, the first installments of Family Portrait, is the central tile of a map of Michigan surrounded by multiple borders of tiles that represent an individual member of my family.  I asked my mother and my sister what makes Michigan feel like home to them and took the imagery and explanations that they provided me in combination with my memories in Michigan to create these multiple borders.  The different shapes of each piece also reflect the personality of the people that they represent.  My sister’s piece is square, because she is prone to symmetry while my mom and my own are both rectangular and asymmetrical.

I chose to display these large tile works on the wall in frames because of their reference to portraiture.  Each is meant to be a literal portrait of one of my family members and represent them completely.  When hung together, these works emit the familiar feeling of togetherness and completeness that many photographic family portraits exude.

The glazes used in Family Portrait: Liz, Chris and Anna were chosen for multiple reasons.  I chose them mostly for color and the choice of color was used to personify both the individual the tile is about and the colors that to me represent Michigan.  I also picked many finished of glaze.  I used high gloss, matte, sugar, crackle, transparent and opaque.  These contrasts in finish really ads a rich depth and texture to my tiles.

There are many levels of tile that create a visual interest and a depth that represents the intricacies of the feeling of home and belonging.  Home is not a simple feeling for most and instead a very complex one that is unique to each individual.  This deep personal expression is, through Family Portrait, what I am portraying and exploring in my ceramic tile work.