“I am a Datura Seed Pod No. 1”

“I am a Datura Seed Pod No. 1”
Michelle Hernandez
Stoneware
5 X 5 X 7”
$550


What started as a datura seed pod figure study quickly turned into an acknowledgement, in my bones, of the weight of this patriarchal society on my (our/the) female body. 

I found a drying datura seed pod on a friend’s window sill and was fascinated by the thorns of the exterior and how the pods dried and stretched and tore themselves to produce new seeds. I started recreating the seed pods and realized I was seeing in the datura seed pod a story of my own - the story of me relating to my female-hood and of aging as a woman. I was malleable and flexible and unboundaried in my youth as a female. And now, no longer wanting to be handled and energetically fondled as I mature, I develop firm, protective thorns. In this stage is where I start to expand - expand in my presence, my allegiance to myself, my allegiance to my community. As I continue to age I will rip open and bare my energetic seeds, my experience, my wisdom, my service. I made these three datura seed pods, each at a different stage, to ground into protection, expansion and influence as I age as a woman.

I then made datura flowers to represent the grief of womanhood in this (painful, dangerous) patriarchal environment. And the grief of the life that we could have but don’t (anymore, yet). One where women are able to fully occupy our power and our many phases of life; where we could safely, without exploitation, care for and nurture our society in ways that only women can. But with this grief also comes the acknowledgment that there are still many ways I can and do live out this matriarchal dream - I see it in moments I share with my community and this, too, I feel in my bones. 

Michelle is a ceramic artist and teacher who strives to make creative expression, art and clay accessible for her community and herself. She has over 19 years experience working with the medium and learning from devoted ceramic professionals. The relationship she has built with clay over the years has allowed her a safe space to fail, succeed, grieve, explore, tune into her body and felt senses and get to meet new versions of herself again and again. She teaches handbuilding and wheel classes in order to share all the clay lessons she has inherited and intuited along her journey. Michelle is a born and raised San Antonian and gets muddy in her studio in Southtown San Antonio.