Despite finding my non-binary identity, the word woman still sits in my mouth. I don’t chew on it. In fact, I find myself clenching my jaw all day long, protecting it. The word isn’t dirty, but it does have grit to it. It’s like potting soil. In stores, it has colorful packaging with flowers all over it. It’s something to grow your dreams in. Something that drinks up the light from the window in your modern white kitchen. When you handle it, it ends up under your fingernails for the next few days. I think about scientific articles with titles like, “Gardening Makes You Happy and Cures Your Depression” and how they sound a lot like the articles titled “Married men live longer; married women, not so much.” These entrenched generosities make me protective of the word and the lives that are woman. I’ve never wanted to completely shake these histories off of myself.
​
Maybe, “the most beautiful part of your body is where its headed” (Ocean Vuong). I want to find peace with woman and where I’m going.
statement
Sorrel is a figurative sculptor from Connecticut’s dairy farming region. They are captured by the lessons taught by animals, the land, and the people who live reciprocally with them. Working with earthenware clay as their primary medium, they utilize the figure to articulate queer culture and address identity politics stemming from the colonization of land and bodies across the Americas.
Sorrel received their MFA from Syracuse University and their BFA from MICA. They were previously the director of a community clay studio in Pittsburgh, an assistant for Cristina Cordóva, and an NCECA Regina Brown Fellow. They have been featured as one of the "Top 20 Sculptors to Follow" by Art is My Career along with one of “12 Contemporary Ceramic Artists Breathing New Life Into An Age Old Tradition” by Munchies Art Club Magazine. Sorrel’s work has been exhibited across North America, including the Archie Bray Foundation and Miami Art Basel.
bio
