ceramic
A ceramic 50 gallon oil drum filled with ceramic helmets casted from a military Kevlar helmet. There are also drawings done by little kids on the outside of the barrel.
To create this piece, I used only my hands and a smoothing tool after coil-building it to the height I desired. My nieces added the finishing touches to the barrel by drawing pictures on it. The work all together represents the loss of innocence during war. The barrel is to represent the war in Iraq, the drawings represent the presence of a child and innocence. I included ceramic helmets inside the barrel because they represent fallen soldiers and add weight, or heaviness, to the piece. What I really want to portray to people is that life or death situations and witnessing death takes a part of someone that can’t be gained back.
