Loved to Death

glazed earthenware, cremated teddy bears, sizes vary, 2024.

Vacant and confrontational, ‘Loved to Death’ is a series in which I explore the profound nature of love between a teddy bear and its owner. Found as discarded toys in thrift shops, I take the teddy bears home and record their construction and emotion through fossil making. I allow each bear to pass through the process of a kiln firing, which I refer to as cremation. Once the teddy bear has disintegrated and the ceramic fossil has completely vitrified, all that is left is a vessel of where the body once laid.