In Search of Meaning

Author/Artist Name

Cole W. Wyatt, Murray State UniversityFollow
Cole Warren Wyatt, Murray State UniversityFollow

Files

Academic Level at Time of Creation

Senior

Date of Creation

Spring 5-9-2025

Artist Statement

All of my work serves; the bowl and box are used to contain and have direct interaction with the hand of the individual, connecting the artist to the user. They are all made by a fallible person but within them is the desire for infallibility. Subtle discrepancies will be found between a brief change of angle in a pot or an unevenness in an otherwise flat surface. We can't attain perfection but that is no reason not to strive for it.

My paintings serve in a different way, expressing life, a scene and a narrative, through vision rather than touch. The strokes are heavily blended and flow between naturalistic and gestural, borrowing much from the works of Chen Yanning. Influenced by the Vanitas painters of the Baroque Period, my paintings point out symbolically that pleasures and works of this earth may be fleeting compared to what awaits in the next life, but that is no reason to forego them. Rather, engage in all the wonders of this world in a spiritually fulfilling manner. Anything may emit holy light or may dampen it depending on how it’s gone about.

There are aspects of symbolism in my ceramics and woodworking as well. Both deal with ideal or satisfying angles and curves derived from natural phenomena such as fractals and Fibonacci spirals. Wood exhibits order via pattern in its grain but simultaneously is never wholly consistent. There is always a bit of chaos that ripples through a board. Those alterations in grain are not to be cast aside however, integrating them into the piece elevates the whole. I find great inspiration from the work of Silas Kopf in this regard, in his intricate yet simple patterns and designs. In ceramics, the most ideal arrangement of angles and curves is achieved, laying down a base of order while allowing the glaze to display chaotic fractals and crystal formations across the form, echoing but never repeating the same on any vessel. Much like Florian Gadsby’s work, the vessels initial production, which is angular and even architectural, is complemented by an organic glaze that is fundamentally representative of nature.

Everything material comes from nature. It's important that my work reflects that, both symbolically in my paintings and in the more abstract ways shared between my ceramics and woodworking. I bring together my ideal in art in that good works are a marriage between the material and the spirit through nature.

I wish for people to experience this in my exhibit by being integrated into a living still life of my works. This installation is a space that reflects where one may put their time, the worldly beauty of the object, the spiritual nature of its meaning, or an appreciation of both. It asks the question: your candle is burning, and it will go out, but what are you going to shine on in the meantime?

Advisor/Mentor

John Utgaard; Sarah Martin; Jessica Fife; Mike Martin

Description

95:1, 2025, Oil on Canvas, 36” x 20”

Fan Pillow, 2024, Floral Fabric, 19 ½“ x 19 ½“.A Seat for Many, Mahogany, 14 ¾“ x 49 ½“ x 13”. Pool, Stoneware with Amber Celadon & Marks Tenmoku, 3 ¾“ x 5”. Lateralus, 2025,

Foxes and Rabbits, 2025, Stoneware with Amber Celadon and Marks Tenmoku, 9” x 3”. Unification, 2025, 5 ¼“ x 3 ¼“.

A Chair for One, 2025, Mahogany with Floral Fabric, 40 ¼“ x 20 ½“ x 24 ½“.

Realized, 2024, Stoneware with Amber Celadon, 8” x 8”. Pneuma, 2025, Stoneware with Amber Celadon & Satin Victoria Green, 3” x 5 ¾“. Firmament, 2024, Stoneware with Marks Tenmoku, 3 ¼“ x 8”.

Parabol, 2024, Stoneware with Marks Tenmoku, 10” x 4”. perfection &, 2024, Stoneware with Marks Tenmoku, 5 ^3/4” x 3 ^1/2”.

Fractal, 2024, Stoneware with Marks Tenmoku & Amber Celadon, 3” x 7 ½“. featuring 16:26, 2025, Oil on Canvas, 22” x 30”.

3:23, 2025, Oil on Canvas, 20” x 28”.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Wyatt, Cole W. and Wyatt, Cole Warren, "In Search of Meaning" (2025). B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498). 154.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art498/154