Polly Whitcomb

Product Information

While living in Ribera, NM around 2006 I began collecting old objects lying around the landscape and constructing assemblages. Drawing on years of working with clay, I incorporate clay shapes with metal, adding color and interest. I try to remain open to the possibilities of each object I discover. Each completed piece is different and is partially determined by the nature of the ‘find’.  The process is a partnership between the elements chosen and what I bring to it.  Some pieces fall into place with startling ease and others need considerable fiddling and redoing.

I find beauty in each of the found objects and delight in the contrasts and harmonies between them and the clay. I love the juxtaposition of deteriorating materials eaten away by time and weather and the seed-like new life of the clay forms. My current work continues the process begun in New Mexico, however the works have changed slightly now that I have returned to my native Vermont. Some of them are smaller and most of have a background of paint on aluminum flashing. The joining of elements is all done with wire.