All posts by Monica Castelo

Germinate Exhibition

Along with the clearly functional garden works like fountains and planters,  2017’s  Germinate developed the seed metaphor of sprouting and growing. This exhibition consolidated Hearth as the centre of my creative practise and as a vibrant exhibition space integrated within my home garden and studio.

Teffany with Little Fetishes
Teffany with Little Fetishes

The concept of the garden being a controlled, enclosed space for the cultivation of plants, animals and states of mind is the perfect setting for art that investigates our role and responsibilities in relation to how we live in the world. I am proud to share my backyard with bees, chickens, rabbits, insects, fish, frogs, marsupial rats, birds, lizards, possums, a dog and plenty of humans. From Courtyard, to Outdoor Gallery, to Studio, to Grape Arbor I invite you to take a journey through my inner garden.

Currawong Woman
Currawong Woman
Little Fetishes
Little Fetishes
Currawong Woman, Christmas Tree & Companions
Currawong Woman, Christmas Tree & Companions

The tree is a favourite symbol of mine. There are a number of tree like forms based on the traditional Mexican Tree of Life/candelabra form. Christmas Tree is encrusted with little figures, leaves and other bits and pieces (found and made). These tree forms are still connected to the mosaic pieces of the last few years in their flatish shapes and adornment with multiple elements; they still speak of the diversity and multiplicity of life.

Christmas Tree
Christmas Tree
Christmas Tree close up
Christmas Tree close up

Occasionally the little figures I make refuse to adorn the tree forms and take on a life of their own. They shoot up as people wearing fur and skins, holding birds and reading books,  and dealing with internal struggles- they are the Little Fetishes.

Companions
Companions
Companions
Companions
Little Fetish
Little Fetish
Little Fetishes
Little Fetishes
Little Fetish
Little Fetish
Little Fetishes
Little Fetishes
Little Fetish
Little Fetish
Little Fetish
Little Fetish
Little Fetish
Little Fetish
Little Fetish
Little Fetish
Little Fetish
Little Fetish
Flame Tree(centre), Momento Mori(small skull) and Grimm Tree.
Flame Tree(centre), Momento Mori(small skull) and Grimm Tree.
Flame Tree & Momento Mori
Flame Tree & Momento Mori
Flame Tree close up
Flame Tree close up
The Grimm Tree
The Grimm Tree
Momento Mori
Momento Mori
Germinate - close up
Germinate – close up
Germinate
Germinate
Bird Gown
Bird Gown
Bird Gown
Bird Gown

Woven into my personal narrative are the strong influences that came out of my trip to Mexico three years ago and last year’s visit to Barcelona and Granada in Spain – it was only when I took Greenhouse out of the kiln that I realised it was some kind of Gaudian architecturally inspired piece – part artichoke, part apartment.

Greenhouse
Greenhouse
Greenhouse close up
Greenhouse close up
The Meeting Tree
The Meeting Tree
The Meeting Tree
The Meeting Tree
The Meeting Tree
The Meeting Tree
Heart Wreath
Heart Wreath
Mermaid Fountain
Mermaid Fountain
Mermaid Fountain
Mermaid Fountain
The Treehouse
The Treehouse

I immediately launched into Treehouse after finishing The Storyteller, obviously missing the physicality and immediacy of handbuilding. It is a kind of dream plan for my next project which will be a platform up in the massive gumtree which dominates the backyard. This tree which frequently drops branches and gumnuts incredibly loudly on my workshop roof is home to millions of beetles and bugs and flocks of birds. I love and fear it equally.

Golden Creatures
Golden Creatures
Golden Creatures close up
Golden Creatures close up

I spent months creating a giant sugar skull, The Storyteller for HIDDEN, an exhibition at Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney. It represents a culmination of my interest in mosaic surface (and possibly a big break from it!). With over 3000 tiles and ceramic pieces found, made and altered covering the entire surface (including the bottom) creating this skull involved a bucket of blood, sweat and tears. Pieces made by my grandmother and children, ex students and cherished shards from beloved ceramic pieces all have a place on its skin.

The Storyteller
The Storyteller
The Storyteller - close up
The Storyteller – close up
the Storyteller - eye socket detail
the Storyteller – eye socket detail
Close up of Storyteller
Close up of Storyteller
Medusa Wall Planter
Medusa Wall Planter
Wall Planter
Wall Planter
Wall Planter
Wall Planter
Wall Planter
Wall Planter
Wall Planter
Wall Planter
Wall Planters
Wall Planters
Wall Planter
Wall Planter
Wall Planter
Wall Planter
Wall Planter
Wall Planter
Wall Planter
Wall Planter
Wall Planter
Wall Planter
Wall Planter
Wall Planter

In my workshop you can find teapots, candelabra and cups slipcast under my design label Fetish Designs and you can check out some of the work people have made during drop in sessions at Ceramic Salon.

Fetish Designs wares
Fetish Designs wares
Fetish Designs wares
Fetish Designs wares

Hearth Exhibition

her * earth * art * heart

Welcome to HEARTH – a home with art.

At the end of 2016 I finally held an exhibition from my home and studio- Hearth. This was a significant event in my art career as it finally consolidated ideas of making creative spaces, honouring the home and the function of art. For years I have been dragging plants, pools of water and found objects into gallery spaces in an effort to transform the space.

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It was great to watch people enter the courtyard, move through the outdoor corridor of art and into the studio. It was so much fun I’m going to do it again! The work from this exhibition was a coming together of years of accumulation and sorting. Many of the pieces were an assemblage of old ceramic work (mine) combined with other people’s left behind pieces and gifts. From touristy knickknacks to reverse traditional ceramic relics, they were all in there. The frames were collected from all over the place, some vintage treasures, others plastic fantastic. The themes were the same ones I have always been drawn to; animal/human transformation, tree of life mythology and defining the feminine/portraying women.

Hearth Opening 46

The launch of my home-based Hearth Studio & open-air Exhibition Space  featured the combining of artwork with a vibrant garden, a living space, and a curated series of events. Hearth offers ongoing fresh opportunities for interacting with Art and helping to make channels of enchantment for people to connect with the creative experience on a personal level.

This body of work was specifically designed to be shown in an outdoor space. These mixed media mosaics incorporated items collected over two decades with handmade ceramic figures and tiles, brought together within collected frames.

Hearth Opening 66
Hearth Entrance
Hearth Opening 67
Hearth Art Exhibition
Hearth Opening 57
Display of Mosaics
Hearth Opening 65
Hearth front garden water sculpture


Water of Life
Water of Life
Australian Gothic
Australian Gothic
Nighttime in the Secret Garden
Nighttime in the Secret Garden
Travelling in a Straight Line
Travelling in a Straight Line
My Parent's House
My Parent’s House
Leaving the Borderlands
Leaving the Borderlands
Coral Kewpie
Coral Kewpie
The Traveller
The Traveller
Sprout
Sprout
Siren
Siren
Lady of the Beasts
Lady of the Beasts
Open Heart
Open Heart

 

Pond Life
Pond Life

Mixed Media/Mosaics

As  a collector (not a hoarder!) other peoples bits of work frequently find their way into my mosaics and sculptures. Through my teaching work I inherit many cast offs, gifts and accidental treasures which trigger the imagination and demand to be given life. Sometimes I hang onto a particular thing for ages waiting for that moment to happen. My  art making in this sense is essentially collaborative though ultimately produced in my own intensely solitary time and space. Mosaics are my bower bird like distillation of the flotsam and jetsam of these years of accruing.

the Storyteller - mixed media mosaic
the Storyteller – mixed media mosaic
Mosaic detail
Mosaic detail
Mosaic detail
Mosaic detail
Mosaic detail
Mosaic detail
Mosaic detail
Mosaic detail
Mosaic detail
Mosaic detail
Mosaic detail
Mosaic detail

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the Storyteller - eye socket detail
the Storyteller – eye socket detail
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eye-frame-detail

mosaic-courtyard

Mosaic, Picasette and other Guilty Pleasures

My ceramic mosaics are lyrical, figurative explorations which allow me to incorporate glass and other mediums along with found and up-cycled objects. This work combines the versatility inherent in the mosaic technique with the variability of surfaces from tabletops, to pots, to large styrofoam sculpted skulls, to picture and mirror frames, to walls and floors. No more crying over breaking a favorite bowl or tea cup!

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mosaic-table

table-edge-detailtable-detailwall-mosaicwall-mosaic-detail1


wall-mosaic-detail-3

 

Ceramic Sculpture

I love working with clay,  I’ve been doing it since I was 4 years old. I liked it so much I studied it at university and still share that passion with my students.

There is something very immediate about working with earth, I like to imagine I’m in contact with humanity’s evolution and past every time I manipulate this medium. The idiosyncrasy of combining a material as primal as clay with all the techniques and tools of this new century is very appealing to me.

khali sculpturecoral-facelarge-head-planterselkie-detailselkiered-haired-2red-haired-goddess-1man-planterhorse-womangoddess-1lionesslove-birds-and-lasswoman-planterfeatureensorched

Ceramic Sculpture
Ceramic Sculpture
Public And Events
Public And Events
Merman
Merman
Bridge of Dreams
Bridge of Dreams

bald-man-planter female-planter