Jeannie Eleni Vasilakos

Sculptor
Nation of the Kw'amutsun, the Qwum'yiqun', the Hwulqwselu, the S'amuna', the L'uml'umuluts, the Hinupsum and the Tl'ulpalus (Cowichan Valley, B.C. Canada)

Songstress, Clay with Glass Tile, 14” x 14”, 2022, $888
Flow, Clay, 5” x 6”, 2022, $350
Ellie’s Vessel, Clay, 12.5” x 10.5”, 2022, NFS

*Shipping not included

Artist Statement:

Art is a very healing, personal journey for me. It feels almost private, in that, the result doesn’t matter, the process is the point. It doesn’t matter whether anyone sees my art or even likes my art, my art is because I need it to be, to free that which is within me.

My Muse took me deeper still into my healing process. My Muse showed up consistently, emerging as The Healer. In each of these pieces The Healer is present doing her quiet and sometimes not so quiet inner work of releasing, honouring and celebrating.

Songstress

2nd in a series, Songstress is a full body surrender to my heart breaking open as a sculptor. She throws her head back, grounded deeply in her inner wisdom she releases her song, vibrating out into the world.  Her song is one of healing, vulnerability, her strength in that vulnerability, her celebration of self. She has passed through the fire, (literally surviving the kiln) transformed. She sings her story of healing to us. Unencumbered, she is free.

Flow

Starting as a groovy little bowl, this piece got me thinking about how we think of bowls, their purpose. Their purpose as vessels, holding, containing. And what if it was perforated from the outside, affected by use and time? Is it still a vessel?  Does it still serve its purpose? Or is it more purposeful now?

I watch the light pass through this piece, observing how it changes throughout the day, casting new patterns, pathways, shadows, not unlike our contact with one another, shifting and changing as we interrelate.

Ellie’s Vessel

Ellie’s Vessel was birthed during a time when a dear friend’s daughter was dying and quite quickly and shockingly, left her body.

In my grief, I found myself wondering about it all, the injustice, the loss of such a rare, young person, the anger, the concern for my friend, how does a mother survive such a loss? I went to the clay; my inner world shaped this piece from my wonderings. How to contain a life? How to contain a process of grief so that one might still be in the world?

I started to explore containers as containment and as a place of safety. Containers as places which evolve as we shift and grow, transform and maybe allow metamorphosis?

I chose this metallic glaze specifically. It serves both as armour, protection to walk around in the world and also as reflection, shiny and light, acting as a mirror for others.

I continue to grieve and wonder…

Open Studio has made me realise that while art is still personal, as is its process, it is also connecting and actively co-creating a community in a wonderful, surprising place called Zoom. Open Studio creates a venue where I feel connected to a beautiful, new community at a time in the world where there has been so much divisiveness. A community where I may create, be witnessed and be witness to other beautiful people in their own creative process. As it turns out, we have many similar feelings about this process and the concept of making art, the witness and the witnessed, a beautiful circle cocreated through honouring our own creative metamorphosis.

Bio:

Jeannie loves the tactual sensation of working with clay, of letting the pieces come out from within. As the clay reflects her inner landscape, her voice is heard, as her hands mingle with the medium so too does the inner world begin to mingle with the outer world. In this inner landscape, Jeannie’s connection with her ancestors becomes even more tangible and can be felt in her sculptures.

There is an acute sense of detail in her work as it comes from a place of intention, wanting to be true to what is within. Quite often other found, repurposed and recycled trinkets will make their way into her pieces weaving together the outer world, connecting, integrating, healing.

Jeannie grew up with a strong sense of culture and family. Her Greek heritage provided abundant influence for beauty, whether it was in the passing down of old family recipes to stories of the “homeland”. There was always a strong focus on the aesthetic and knowledge. This created quite a curiosity in Jeannie, who loves questioning her surroundings to better understand and connect with the world around her and in turn herself.

This curiosity had Jeannie exploring multiple professions, all of which focussed on helping people and healing.

Her life as an artist is no different. She is constantly asking questions of the materials with which she plays; structurally, aesthetically, wholistically.

Her art is her own personal process in healing and in sharing her art, she hopes others may begin to ask their own questions, find their own healing, to feel supported and nourished.

Contact: DM Instagram @jeannievasilakos8