Carolyn di Fiori Hopkins

Gesture Toward the Earth, Second Surface

is a series of new works rooted in my enduring love of drawing and mark-making, and in the layered processes I’ve practiced for decades—using Dura-Lar, tracing paper, and translucent materials, now expanded through digital means. These new works are composed entirely from my original drawings and paintings, re-layered through a reflective digital process that mirrors how I’ve always constructed space, gesture, and meaning. Rather than fabricate, I recombine: veiling, revealing, and deepening the terrain. Each image holds the tactile residue of the hand—scratches, stains, silhouettes—preserving the intimacy of the mark while reaching into new, composite surfaces.

Together, they form a visual record of transformation—bridging the physical and the digital, the remembered and the reimagined.

The pottery vessels and Pompeii-inspired figures in my work reflect a deep personal connection to the time I spent in Italy, where the ancient world feels remarkably close—etched into stone, buried beneath ash, held in the shape of a vessel. These forms echo the stillness of the ruins, the silence of time passing, and the resilience of the handmade object. My work is also grounded in the legacy of the major ceramic artists who shaped the field in the 1970s, when I studied under pioneers like William Daley and Rudy Staffel. Their reverence for form, surface, and the symbolic language of clay has never left me. Now, decades later, I find myself returning to clay—hand-building new pieces and actively sketching ideas for future vessels. The forms in my current work appear as both artifacts and metaphors—containers of memory, time, and presence.

✦ Entanglegraph Series (2025)

Limited edition archival prints available — 24 x 32 inches

Printed on Hahnemühle paper by WhiteWall, signed and remarked by the artist.

Entanglegraph No. 01