A solo exhibition featuring ceramic sculptural works by Elisha Harteis, who is completing her two-year residency at The Clay Studio of Missoula.

We will be hosting a socially distanced outdoor reception for Elisha on Friday, August 7 in our parking lot and garden. Please bring your own refreshments, we request that masks be worn inside our facility and in instances where it is not possible to socially distance. Attendees will be able to view the exhibit and make purchases.

Artist Statement

In the midst of a global pandemic and civil unrest, it’s been difficult to prepare for my exit show, Running with Scissors, at the Clay Studio of Missoula.
At once isolated and ever-connected, situating myself in the current status of the world makes personal pain and vulnerability appear static. Everything seems distant, and any action whether external or internal, seems inconsequential. There’s a longing to connect, to extend empathy to others and sympathy to ourselves. Patience is comforting and alienating. The sense of contemplation and teetering on action and inaction spill into my current work.
The figures are paused in a moment either prior to action or directly following a decision to act. They dare to hang by the thread and offer the question: “What happens if?” There’s no answer, no reconciliation. They’re still – both motionless and present. I wanted to explore the delicacy of settling in to intolerable pain and imagining the free joy of letting go. What if I take the leap? What if I sink? How do I honor the personal pain while paying respect to the communal turmoil? How does one disregard the risks and expose oneself to personal pain, while retaining a sense of safety and completeness?
I entered into my residency in what feels like a completely different world and as a completely different me. The work tries to encompass that feeling of departure.