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I am from Applachia, Kentucky.

 

My mamaw Verda and papaw Marion were salt of the earth people; never had money, farmed and bartered for what they needed.

If my papaw Marion were alive today he'd be 127 yrs old.

 

Sadly both of them passed before I was 4 years old. I come from these people. My mother Louise and aunt Zena passed down to me the importance of good ole southern cook'n'(lard) and hospitality (warmth & laughter), not to mention what a good porch sittn will do in clearing your mind and keeping you acquainted with your neighbors(family). 

bio

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Zena is a maker of ceramics, quilts, supper, grower of food, nurturer of partnerships, roller dancer, and participant and steward in all types of learning environments. She is one generation removed from working the land in Appalachia Kentucky. She comes from mountain people.  Zena currently resides in Washington County, NY. She is pursuing ancestral love of the dirt through pottery, connecting kids with nature, natural dying, gardening & community building. 

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Zena’s ceramic work has been exhibited nationally and internationally.  She has been a resident in Jingdezhen, China. Her work was highlighted in The New York Times, W Magazine, & a Japanese publication. Her career in craft, design, & teaching has taken her all over the world. Zena has been working with kids & adults in process based workshops & facilitating learning environments for 15 years. She feel's very strongly about the power of hands-on experiential and immersive learning. She has devoted her practice to the dirt & making with others of all ages.  

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Statement

 

When Zena Verda Pesta is layering shapes, textures, slips, underglazes, transfers, glazes, decals, and gold she is communing with her dead mother investigating a home and place. Growing up in Southern Kentucky Zena remembers her mother (Manda Louise Pesta) using gold spray paint, craft, & her love of ornament to create a sense of luxury and glamor in their lives. Zena draws immense amounts of inspiration from these early years consistently using this visual language to explore connection and intimacy to objects in space.  Primarily working in dark earthenware clay, this current work pays homage to historical and contemporary influences ranging from french rococo porcelain,  contemporary cake decorating, to little kid hair accessories.  Pastel patterns and gold luster are paired with small individually placed flowers, delicately modeled petals, and larger amorphous shapes with a reverence for romance, celebration, and joy. It mixes high art to low until you might not be able to tell the difference.  The resulting pastiche bumps up against the intended function and utility of the objects asking us what type of intimate ritual is happening here? With the absence of the body, the work invites the viewer to enter as a purposeful actor. The shapes are expressive with bulges, distortion, & imperfections which highlights the process of the handmade. The patterns are purposefully cluttered, distorted, and blurred. These vessels and containers hold love letters of domesticity and femininity. The basket weaving, clothing textures, and florals signify a denses sense of indulgence.  The tension between the functionality and the ornament requests your gaze, but the artist prefers the fancy things in life to be used, cared for, and adored.

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Multidimensional & limitless love! Altho
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