As many of you know, I’ve traveled to Haiti several times over the past few years. In addition to bringing supplies, doing art projects and fundraising for goats in a small village, I’ve friended artists from Atis Rezistans, Sculptors of the Grande Rue, who create mixed media work from found objects. I have three pieces of art by artists Claudel Casseus & Racine Polycarpe for sale.
The two wall pieces were made in Haiti and brought to the US as part of an exhibition at Recology’s Artist in Residence Program. They are made with carved rubber from tires, found objects and painted with imagery found in voudou style work.
The large sculpture ‘Poisson’ was made during Polycarpe’s residency at Recology from found objects at the San Francisco dump. This piece lights up from the inside and is suitable for an outdoor sculpture.
Please contact me if you are interested in any of these pieces. All sales will go directly to the artists.
About Atis Rezistans:
Grand Rue is the main avenue that runs a north-south swathe through downtown Port au Prince from Bel Air and La Saline to La Cimetière and Carrefour. At the southern end of Grand Rue, amongst the labyrinthine warren of back streets that line the avenue, is an area that traditionally has produced small handicrafts for the ever-diminishing tourism market. This close-knit community is hemmed in on all sides by the makeshift car repair district, which serves as both graveyard and salvation for the cities increasingly decrepit automobiles.
All the artists grew up in this atmosphere of junkyard make-do, survivalist recycling and artistic endeavour. Their powerful sculptural collages of engine manifolds, TV sets, wheel hubcaps and discarded lumber have transformed the detritus of a failing economy into bold, radical and warped sculptures. Their work references their shared African & Haitian cultural heritage, a dystopian sci-fi view of the future and the positive transformative act of assemblage.
The artists from Grand Rue are extending the historical legacy of assemblage to the majority world. Their use of the readymade components are driven by economic necessity combined with creative vision and cultural continuity. Their work is transformative on many different allegorical levels, the transformation of wreckage to art, of disunity to harmony and of three young men, with no formal arts training, to the new heirs of a radical and challenging arts practice that has reached down through both modernist and post-modern arts practice.
I like to make tags that can be attached to the jar so that as they move around the classroom, the correct tag stays with the correct jar. I use the same clay we are building with and make small pancake shapes that are about 1 1/2″ across. I texture half of the tag and put a hole in the top to eventually hang it by. If you know what glazes you are using, you might want to write the name with a sharp tool onto the back of the tag while the clay is wet. If you want to make a bunch and label them later, you can do that too. Then bisque fire them.
I label mine with an 
When you have your tiles done, loop and elastic band through the hole at the top and then around the neck of the glaze bottle. When you run out of glaze, you can easily take off the label and place it on the new bottle. My new students always have a hard time believing that this rusty red glaze will turn to leaf green with just a little help from the kiln. Happy Glazing!
I installed my piece at Sculpture IS: 2016 at Sierra Azul Gardens last week and was lucky enough to be there when KSBW news was there reporting on the event. Caught this screenshot from their live news report the other night. This is my favorite exhibit if the year and the opening is a beautiful time to walk the gardens, view the art with music and a glass of wine. After seeing some of the other work coming in while I was installing, I assure you that this is a very incredible exhibit not to be missed!
