Ramrod Key, FL ARTIST STATEMENTI grew up in the Mississippi Delta, the daughter of a cotton farmer. I was a child who played in the dirt, ran barefoot, and built tea sets and fairy houses from sticks and mud. In many ways, I still create in the same ways. Red, gritty terra cotta is the clay body that feels like home to me, familiar and ancient all at once. As a sculptural storyteller, I pull moments and reflections from my dreams and observations and mingle them with the influences of my upbringing. It is impossible to grow up in the deep South without embracing the vernacular of that region, its rich history and landscape. My Southern stage is set with figures and animals intermingled with other ancient cultures, most notably pre-Columbian and Mexican feminine and animal forms. With nods to the stoic silhouettes created by primitive artisans, my interest is not in realistic perfection. Rather, I prefer to work intuitively and am heavily influenced by Art Brut and outsider artists of the world. I am fascinated by topographical marks, colors, and layers and treat the figure as if it were a map. This language is marked throughout my work, and each piece can be read, much like pages in a book. BIOGRAPHYStacey Hardy ( b.1969) is a visual artist working primarily in clay. Her work is influenced by life in the Mississippi Delta, New Orleans, and the Gulf Coast, places rich in a myriad of cultures. Her figurative work embraces this gumbo of flamboyance, color, soulfulness, and storytelling. Hardy primarily works in red, gritty clay, which she discovered in her youth, dug from the earth. Working with this particular medium is both familiar and purposeful, serving as a beautiful surface upon which to build layers of color. She has an interest in diverse figure study without gender or race, and often thinks of pieces as self portraits. Gestural figures are adorned with layered, painterly surfaces filled with mark making, in essence creating an evolving cartography honoring constellations, plant and ocean life, and destinations. Hardy holds a BFA from Loyola University and an MFA from the University of Georgia. She is the recipient of multiple fellowships and awards, including the honor of 2020 Visual Artist award from The Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters. Recent residencies include Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity and Penland School of Craft.