2019 Workhouse Clay International ICAN Merit Award
Mike Stumbras’, Heart Burial Urns, porcelain, wheel thrown, slip trailing, water etching, pulled handles, soda fired in reduction to cone 11.
Mike Stumbras’ artist statement:
“Heart burial is the process of interring the heart (and sometimes other viscera) separately from the body. This ritual was popular in medieval and early post-medieval Central Europe, but it is a tradition that continues today. Otto von Habsburg
requested a heart burial in 2011. Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein reportedly also kept her husband’s heart in a silk bag on her desk. Heart burial is practiced for variety of reasons, including practicality—when one dies
on their travels and the whole corpse would be difficult to transport, or as a symbol of affections, courage, and for other metaphorical reasons. Frederic Chopin’s heart burial monument has the inscription, "For where your treasure is, there
will your heart be also.” Other notable heart burial monuments are the Monument of Rene de Chalon and the heart burial of Louis XVII. I designed these urns for the purpose of heart burial, so they are just a bit smaller than urns for cremains.
The form is loosely inspired by the anatomical shape of a human heart. I have given an urn to my wife to wait for my own heart.”
Award: $200 cash prize and 1-year ICAN Gold subscription.
2019 Workhouse Clay International
ICAN Merit Award
Mike Stumbras’, Heart Burial Urns, porcelain, wheel thrown, slip trailing, water etching, pulled handles, soda fired in reduction to cone 11.
Mike Stumbras’ artist statement:
“Heart burial is the process of interring the heart (and sometimes other viscera) separately from the body. This ritual was popular in medieval and early post-medieval Central Europe, but it is a tradition that continues today. Otto von Habsburg requested a heart burial in 2011. Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein reportedly also kept her husband’s heart in a silk bag on her desk. Heart burial is practiced for variety of reasons, including practicality—when one dies on their travels and the whole corpse would be difficult to transport, or as a symbol of affections, courage, and for other metaphorical reasons. Frederic Chopin’s heart burial monument has the inscription, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Other notable heart burial monuments are the Monument of Rene de Chalon and the heart burial of Louis XVII. I designed these urns for the purpose of heart burial, so they are just a bit smaller than urns for cremains. The form is loosely inspired by the anatomical shape of a human heart. I have given an urn to my wife to wait for my own heart.”
Award: $200 cash prize and 1-year ICAN Gold subscription.