tiny useless things

hand built ceramics, air dry clay
acrylics
acrylic seal/varnish

a little (pun intended) exploration i did to communicate a message about society, humanity, ableism, and self worth.

the collection consisted of tiny mugs you can’t drink out of, tiny vases of glued in (faux) flowers, and tiny buckets you can’t put water in. see? useless things.

…

(read the why at the end)

being a designer i’ve always tried to find the purpose and core function of anything i see or make—it’s just in our nature as designers (inventors). and as a person who creates things, i’ve also struggled with the persistent thoughts of, “am i doing enough?” or “am i producing/creating enough?”

but, the older i get the more i realize that the thing about art (and life) is that not every product or thing or even human being needs to have some sort of profound and impactful purpose all of the time. we don’t always need to be “useful. sometimes just simply existing is okay and what and how much we produce isn’t ever tied to our value and worth. these tiny useless mugs (15), vases (7), and buckets (5) were made as a symbol of this and a reminder to us whenever we see this tiny thing just sitting there. they were created for a couple markets around saskatoon for the summer and were overall well received.

(it was also an exercise and challenge for me, a designer, to make something with no real purpose… just vibes).