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LILLY LERNER
KERRVILLE

I have always been a storyteller, and clay has become my preferred means
of telling stories. I have created a number of ceramic purses and briefcases
that symbolize individual and collective human stories. Each of these
works is an attempt to bring the voices behind those stories to life. When I
start building a clay purse, I have in mind a story or a distinctive trait of an
individual or a community, for example, their ability to overcome obstacles.
That is where the story starts, and as I continue building my piece, the clay
starts to react and the story takes form.

One representation of a person is their bag and what they carry in it. In a
purse there is everything that its owner needs or imagines that they need.
The purse’s materials, its colors, its brightness and its textures distinguish
one purse from another, one personality from another and are a reflection of
its owner and their community. My work is inspired by the stories represented
in the bags carried by important people in my life: relatives, friends,
colleagues, and more distantly, politicians, writers and even the Queen. It
is a collection of portraits of communities, stories and moments, narrated in
ceramics

TOP:
“Obsess with decency”
2019

Hand built in Clay.
9 3/4” W 7 “ H 4” D
5 lbs
400

BOTTOM:
“Doña Anita, Movie buff to the last minute”
2020

Hand built in Clay
10” W 7 1/2” H 4” D
4.5 Lbs
$400