The Blooming Stamen: The Forging by Fire and Grit

The “Blooming Stamen” is about what it takes to grow when conditions aren’t easy.

At the center of a flower, the stamen stands exposed—essential, unhidden, responsible for continuation. This piece reflects that same truth: growth doesn’t happen in comfort. It happens through pressure, persistence, and staying with the process.

Built on a ceramic foundation and layered with hand-formed polymer clay, the work came together one element at a time, shaped, reworked, and assembled without a fixed blueprint. Not everything fit right away. Some parts had to be reshaped. Others only made sense later.

That’s where resilience lives.

Not in a single moment, but in showing up again and again especially when the outcome is unclear.

This piece was exhibited in a space centered on veteran stories of strength, where resilience isn’t theoretical, it’s lived. In that context, “Blooming Stamen” becomes a reflection of what endures: the quiet strength to keep building, to stay open, and to continue forward.

Growth here isn’t delicate.
It’s constructed.
Layer by layer

Special Note: The project I’m in is supported, in part, by a grant from the Washington State Arts Commission.