Oregon author Jules Ohman speaks with Carolyn Hazel Drake and Rachael Zur about their work, providing insight into the themes and process behind their upcoming show at Hanson Howard Gallery, At Home with the Dead. 

Creative Process

Ohman:  Tell me about your creative process concerning the work in the show. 

Zur: For my expanded paintings, I start with drawing out the form, then work out the different iterations for the silhouette on which the piece is painted. Then I draw it onto plywood and cut it with a Dremel. Next, I build up a surface to paint on, out of either plaster gauze, paper mache, or apply resin to, or some combination.

Drake: It can be a very intimate and vulnerable experience in terms of making urns. You're creating something out of nothing: forming a vessel intended to hold the cremated remains of a body.

Death & Grief

Ohman: You both represent everyday objects in your work, though in different forms. Is there an early experience of grief that influenced how you started making these connections between the physical world and an afterlife, either for the objects themselves or for individuals? 

Zur: My father was a ceramicist who made earthenware dinnerware, lamps, and objects for the home. He passed away when I was four months old. Growing up with his objects became a way I could be close to him; putting my hands in the indentations of the ceramics was the closest I could get to holding his hand.

Drake: For me, my grandmother was so influential. Her death was the first death where I felt the world was altered in a way that could not be restored. Telephones appear often in my work and stand in for the heavy, pastel pink telephone that she had on her kitchen counter. It had the loudest ring – it’d scare you to death. The phone stands in for the desire to reach her still, and not being able to continue that conversation.  

Imagery & Influences

Ohman: Which stories or myths, either personal or cultural or both, have influenced the archetypes that you're working on within these bodies of work? 

Drake: Literature and artmaking are how I can be a person that functions in the world and connects with others. Specifically in terms of stories or myths, I am drawn to Greek tragedy for the spare and beautiful language combined with the utterly destructive nature of the stories. Orpheus and Eurydice is a foundational, archetypal story that resonates with themes of longing, loss, and the cyclical nature of things. 

Ohman: Can you speak to the images that come up in your work?

Drake: Rachael and I both use moon imagery, and the clock can stand in for the symbol of the moon that is reflecting the movement of the planets. Though I don't necessarily do work about being a mother, becoming a mother shifted how I see myself in the progression of my life and my relationship with previous generations and future generations. 

Zur: It’s personal for me, paying homage to spaces that are traditionally cared for by women. I do think that being a mother does play a role in this work. You can't pay homage to domestic space and home without having some sort of connection to care, whether it's with your children, spouse, parents, or other family members. I’m using the clock in my imagery to reference mortality.  I feel like the role of mother and caretaking at home is all part of this rich connection to life and death. 

Drake: As we're selecting the final objects that are going to be included in the show, what's been fun to see is the amplification of the ceremonial or shrine-like aspects of our work. That's the thing that I think we're most excited to see come together in the gallery: how those themes amplify each other in creating a space.

Carolyn Hazel Drake is a sculptor, arts educator, and third-generation Oregonian. Her work integrates textiles, ceramics, and domestic objects assembled and layered through traditional craft techniques and collage. She references devotional objects, archetypal imagery, and folktales to create work that feels familiar yet cryptic. Carolyn studied Literature & Architecture at Portland State University’s Honors College and spent a term as a Curatorial Research & Writing intern for the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She has an M.Ed. in Arts Education and was a longtime K-12 Public Educator and Arts Administrator in Oregon school districts. She has been awarded the GLEAN Residency, the Leland Ironworks Residency, the Suttle Lodge Artist Residency, and the Sitka Center for Art & Ecology Residency. Her work has been shown across the Pacific Northwest, and is represented by Hanson Howard Gallery and Carnation Contemporary. In 2022, Carolyn joined the faculty of the School of Art at Arizona State University as an Assistant Teaching Professor for Art Education. She divides her time between Phoenix, Arizona and Portland, Oregon. 

www.carolynhazeldrake.com 

Rachael Zur’s expanded paintings blend sculptural physicality with traditional painting techniques to depict objects found in living rooms. Her work is twice published in New American Paintings, as well as Friend of the Artist, Under The Bridge Magazine, and Stay Home by Stay Home Gallery and Residency. After 12 years as a stay-at-home mom, Rachael resumed her education and completed her MFA in 2019 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Since then, she has exhibited her work throughout the United States and has worked as a Program Mentor in the Low Residency MFA Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2021, she drove her family of five across the country in an RV to complete a residency at Stay Home Gallery while homeschooling her three children during their cross-country camping adventure. Rachael currently resides in the greater Portland Metropolitan area where she strives to set boundaries on when her kids can hang out in her studio. 

www.rachaelzur.com 

Jules Ohman is the author of the debut novel Body Grammar (Vintage). Jules' writing has been published by Literary Hub, Electric Literature, Buckmxn Journal, Willow Springs, Camas Magazine, and others. Jules will be the Kittredge Distinguished Visiting Writer this fall at the University of Montana. 

www.julesohman.com 

This conversation has been condensed and adapted for inclusion in Art & About. The original conversation will be included in the artist’s publication catalog for their exhibition, there are no relevant financial or non-financial competing interests to report. This was not accepted as a “writing pitch” and more as an opportunity to share.