Integration series totems

The Evolution    |  Tall   |   Sanded   |   Raku  |   Oxide  |  

On a superficial level, the Integration Series totems come out of appreciation for rock cairns and wind carved rock that one finds while strolling along river banks or hiking in mountains, in wilderness, on the beach, and in local parks. Cairns  express the paradox of both immense durability and suspenseful fragility.

These ceramic wannabe rocks that I form into vertical communities and call totems allow me to invite this durability/fragility paradox into our urban lives, gardens, patios, and homes. 

(Note that each totem is also a lantern with the addition of interior lighting adding another dimension to the mysteries of shape, color, volume, and verticality.)

My explorations into the Integration Series totems encourage me to ponder how each set exists as a unique, holistic individual made up of many ‘pieces’– stages, levels, or layers – that rest upon the shoulders of the piece beneath or above it. Each piece lives in close harmony with its neighbor – one below, one above – and each finds a way to fit into/with its neighbor. 

There is no balanced/balancing entity without generosity toward and support of that which precedes/succeeds it.
This mutuality brings to mind a natural ecosystem:

… a group of interconnected elements, formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their environment

…or nature’s ecological niches:

… the role and position a species has in its environment, how it meets its needs, how it survives, how it reproduces, includes all of its interactions with the factors of its environment.

...as well as the necessary psychological /spiritual integration necessary for a richly textured life. According to Carl Jung:

…integration is the process during which both the individual and collective unconscious are integrated into the personality; a positive psychological direction develops that indicates psychological maturity that may help an individual move past negative habits.

And Rumi’s teachings:

…only a vigorous inquiry into the nature of ego will help the socio-intellectual self perceive the value of final integration in terms of existence.

See the second in the series in the leather hard phase.