Jasmin Jean-Louis
Snow globes, 2020
Ceramics
24 x 25 x 7 inches
Throughout my ceramics journey, I have more often than not created realistic pieces. Most of these had to do with nature and landscapes, and although I got creative with the environment they were seen in, like a cardboard box, I never really strayed from the realistic aspect. To push my boundaries, I decided to create some “fantastical” landscapes.
I got my inspiration for this piece from Dr. Suess’ “Oh, the Places You’ll Go.” I was originally going to make a slab that had the colourful roads Seuss illustrated in his book but I decided that the allusion might unintentionally end up morphing into a tribute to him. The idea of having a colourful path is still visible on the slab, but instead of it being Seuss’ signature pastel colours, these colours will be marbleized on the mountains around them.
Inserted into these areas are smaller landscapes, held in small snow globe-like containers. Snow globes have always been a big part of my life because my Dad travels a lot and, as a kid, he would try to bring back a snow globe or some type of souvenir for me whenever he went somewhere new. In my version, the interiors of these containers vary from a fantastical forest to a hand reaching up into the abyss. They are meant to capture a single moment from my dreams.
