Jacob Mass

Lexus Giles
Ceramics: 3D Concepts - ART2757C
25 April 2023
Ceramics as Craft, Design and Fine Art: Linda Lopez
Biography and Practice

Linda Lopez is a first-generation American artist of Vietnamese and Mexican

descent who received a BFA from California State University of Chico and an MFA from
the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her work has been featured abroad in the likes of
Italy, New Zealand, and England, as well as across the United States in a wide variety
of venues including Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Museum of Art and
Design in New York, and the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles.
Lopez’s work often focuses on seeing life within inanimate objects. Lopez
understands mundane household objects as being full of life and language. From this
stems her focus on ceramic still lifes objects imbued with playful, anthropomorphic
energy. Lopez’s primary artistic focus is in her ongoing series Dust Furries, which
features dozens of the titular dust furries, resembling abstract blobs of shape detailed
with a ceramic “fur” texture, often with rocks or some other debris stuck around the
edges of their fur. Lopez’s dust furries are seen in a wide variety of colors, with many
pieces displaying an ombre effect transitioning from one highly saturated color to the
next; furthermore, the debris on these dust furries is often a metallic gold shade.
Lopez’s dust furries perfectly exemplify Lopez’s motivation of articulating deep
emotional ranges from within mundane, seemingly lifeless objects. Her dust furries are
posed in abstract shapes that suggest liveliness and dynamism in the way they bend
and lean, further supported by the fluidity of the fur, crafted from individual elongated
clay droplets. The combination of these dynamic poses and unique, eye-catching color
palettes across her dust furries truly imbue each piece of the series with its own
personality, supporting Lopez’s artistic goal of allowing these inanimate objects to speak
to us about their hidden lives.
Critical Analysis

Linda Lopez’s unassuming dust furries skillfully communicate the theme of her
work using both subtle and conspicuous details in tandem. We can first look at the base
concept for these dust furries, what they all have in common. We see across all dust
furries different abstract blob shapes with a surface texture of thick, round fur strands,
many with debris of different shapes littering the furry surface. This baseline for the dust
furries is important conceptually in establishing a sort of consistent mythos for the
creatures. Their unique texture is consistently engaging to the eye, and their
three-dimensional organic forms engage the viewer.
It is not the similarities, though, but rather the differences among these dust
furries that propel them conceptually. First is the unique movement expressed within the
forms and poses of each piece. Taking the examples shown below, we can see a variety
of poses: one dust furry stands tall in two pillars, one seems to lean and sag into itself,
and one stands sturdy and stout. These poses successfully achieve Lopez’s desired
sense of suggesting anthropomorphism within the dust furries. The poses serve each
piece twofold: formally, they establish a tangible sense of form within each piece, and
conceptually, they suggest quirks and personality traits unique to each piece.
Lopez’s use of color throughout her pieces also successfully serves each piece
both formally and conceptually. Formally, Lopez’s use of color is extremely engaging
across her pieces as she plays with many different color palettes. The chosen colors
are consistently saturated and striking, calling attention to themselves and altering the
perception of each piece. The different bright colors across pieces also contribute
conceptually, supporting the individuality of each dust furry. We can almost see each
dust furry’s color palette as its personal choice of fashion, and in this sense the dust
furries are indeed revealing information to us about themselves as Lopez suggests.
Instead of creating a series of sculptures that seem to be the same idea
recreated, Lopez has in a sense designed her own species, in which each of these dust
furries belong to this larger group, but fully distinguish themselves as well, both as
artworks and as objects with distinct emotions.
Works Referenced

Blue/Green Dust Furry with Green Lint | 8 x 10 x 1/2 x 5 1/2 in, Porcelain, 2019

Orange/Pink Ombre Bend Dust Furry | 9.5 x 7.75 x 7 in, Porcelain, date not listed

Blue/Black Ombre Pants with Pink Cut-Outs | 9 3/4 x 9 1/4 x 4 1/2 in., Porcelain, 2019

Bibliography:

“Linda Lopez, Ceramic Artists.” The Clay Studio, https://www.theclaystudio.org/artists/linda-lopez.

“Linda Lopez.” Linda Lopez - 49 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy,

https://www.artsy.net/artist/linda-lopez.

Mothes, Kate. “Linda Lopez's Playful Ceramic 'Dust Furries' Pick up Detritus like Pebbles and Peas
in Their Colorful Coats.” Colossal, 21 Feb. 2023,
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/01/linda-lopez-ceramic-dust-furries/.

“Work.” Linda Lopez, http://www.lindalopez.net/work1.