“My current body of work talks about personal experiences with mental health, guilt, trauma, and the effects they have on memory. I have long searched for a comfortable way to discuss these difficult experiences. With this work, I feel that I can communicate difficult experiences to the viewer, serving as a steppingstone to moving forward and gives me a strong sense of catharsis. Within these pieces, I focus on both form and image to create my personal landscape of memories. Often, I choose the main elements that rush back to me most quickly when experiencing them. Concurrent with my personal history of depression and PTSD, the references are typically vivid and fractured experiences, often triggered by external factors. The bare texture, rough surface, and distorted imagery on these objects become allegories of the effect our personal experiences have upon us and the deep complexity of larger forces. At times, the work may be difficult to navigate, or confusing to piece together, which references coming to terms with difficult factors outside of our control and inconsistency in memory recall. While this work is deeply personal to me, I hope to convey ideas the viewer can relate to. I also hope to help eliminate stigma surrounding addressing and being open about mental health issues.” Samuel Halvorson (b. Minneapolis, 1989) creates ceramic work informed by social, emotional, and political environments, prominently featuring conversations about mental health and perceptions of memory. He obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics from The University of Iowa, following the completion of a degree in Addictions Counseling through Minneapolis Community and Technical Colleges. He was recently selected as a resident artist at the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences in Rabun Gap, GA. Most recently his work has been featured in Making Moves at the University of Minnesota, Material Oracle at Public Space One in Iowa City, IA and Surface Remix in Grinnell, Iowa.