Photography Professor Gootee uses grant funds to explore new photography process
Marita Gootee received a $500 mini grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission in 2021.
Marita Gootee received a $500 mini grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission in 2021.
I struggle with a disease called keratoconus. My cornea is thinner in one spot, and outside stimuli from when I was younger have caused light to be reflected twice in one area. This makes dark versus light contrast hard to visualize and impairs some aspects of my life even with glasses. I worried about going blind, so I now use texture in my art to counteract that fear.
鈥淏eing oneself is, always, becoming that other that we are and that we carry hidden inside us, more than anything as a promise or possibility of being.鈥 -Octavio Paz
I strive to create a sense of unity between different functional pieces of pottery and tie them together as a set. The sets I create all serve the purpose of gathering people together to take part in a ceremonial practice. These practices can be as mundane as a meal or as formal as a religious ceremony. They are the reasons to gather, and my ceramic sets are the tools used by those who have gathered. Therefore, my art is about the tasks that bring people together to interact with the sets and the function they serve in various rituals
Creativity and love bring my family and I together around meals, games, and hobbies. The game table sets I have created follow in the footsteps of my father's hobby of wood working. He is always creating some token of affection for my mom, whether it鈥檚 a jewelry box, a chair, a cutting board, etc. Even though my dad was always creating these tokens for my mom, the first time I ever worked on anything in a woodshop was in college, far away from my father鈥檚 tools.