Landscapes of the Heart

During the pandemic in early 2020 I was inspired to complete this heart with themes from my childhood, incorporating my grandmother's broken candy dish. As an isolated and lonely child, the nearby woods, thickets, and ponds were magical to me.

The textured candy dish tesserae on the bottom represent the rough icy ocean of my family's emotional landscape.

The slice of bloodstone on the back, shaped like a biological heart, has smalti arteries attached as paths through lungs and fascia under moonshine. This shows the care and support we received in my family for physical health issues, and they are paths through dark and light forests, mountains, fields, and sunrise and moonrise.

It is made of Pal Tiya, glass (stained, slag, cullet, Italian, Mexican and gold smalti and my grandmother’s candy dish), Japanese porcelain plates, bloodstone, chrysocollas, New England fieldstone, slate and Marcellus shale.