art about us by kenni Zipf

Mar 30

I am a senior in the UConn School of Fine Arts in the Sculpture/Ceramics program. I have adored working with my hands for as long as I can remember, and for the last several years, I have been consumed with the practice of working with clay. I fell in love with its tactile nature and ability to hold life in its shape. And in the last year of my BFA, I have been working on two projects that are a culmination of the skills and passions I have developed over time.

Dedicating my senior year in college to making fat sculptures was not something I would have thought possible even just a few years ago. I have come so far in my personal journey of self acceptance and self love, and I am so grateful for the way that I have turned myself around. For as long as I can remember, I was ashamed of my body. I thought that I was the wrong shape, I didn’t fit into the right clothes, I couldn’t be loved because I was disgusting. The truth escaped me then, but I found it again. About three years ago I found myself exhausted from my negative self talk. Logically, I knew that the only person who could dig me out of the hole I was in was me. No one else could heal those deep wounds. Slowly, I began to be kind to myself, like I had never been before. And over time, I dug myself out. Now, I get to experience the joy of making art that looks like me, that looks like my community. I get to add to the content of fat art that I love seeing! I love my body, I love my shape, I love my sculptures, and I love being a part of the conversation about fat bodies. We will take up the space we deserve!

The first is my senior project, where I am sculpting a series of colorful fat little figures. That little purple figure is sculpted from memory, using my own body as a touchstone to create every little detail. While she may be naked, she is not unadorned; the purple glazes dance over her skin in a variegated pattern, decorating her little body in the jewelry of color.

The second is my grant project, which I am honored to say has been funded by the IDEA Grant through my university. I am making a series of life size sculptures of fat women and femme people. Each color of clay that I use is matched to the model that the sculpture is based off. The fired clay is then polished with a butter made of beeswax, coconut oil, and olive oil to bring it to a soft, skin-like shine. There is something poetic about being able to use that butter on my sculptures’ surfaces, as well as my own skin. It has been an incredibly fulfilling challenge to make them, both in honing my technical skill in large work and figure sculpture, and also as a personal triumph.