Celestial Faces
Clay and glass, shaped by light.
An original series of hand-sculpted ceramic and stained-glass mosaic wall sculptures exploring the symbolic qualities of the celestial bodies in our solar system.
What if Earth, the Moon, the Sun, and the planets had faces—not as portraits of celestial objects, but as human expression?
I use the solar system as a framework, drawing inspiration from both the physical characteristics of the celestial bodies and the meanings humans have associated with them over time. I begin each piece by asking what its particular quality might feel like if it took human form. From there, I develop the face, mood, materials, movement, color, and surrounding imagery that can give that energy a physical presence. The result is part sculpture, part mosaic, and part ongoing experiment.
The Series in Progress
With Earth, Sun, Moon, Mercury, and Saturn complete, the series' character is becoming much clearer. Venus, Mars, and Neptune have moved into the physical world as sculpted faces, while Jupiter and Uranus remain at earlier stages of development. Some forms are beginning to reveal themselves; others I'm intentionally leaving unresolved until I'm ready to work on them.
What interests me now is how differently each sculpture is asking to be made. There is no template beyond the presence of a sculpted human form and mosaic as a shared language. One piece may call for an outward explosion of glass, another for a quiet surface, an unexpected material, an unusual viewpoint, or a sculptural element that extends beyond the mosaic itself. I'm allowing those differences to grow rather than trying to make everything match. As the series develops, the connection between them comes less from looking alike and more from the idea that each is giving physical form to an aspect of the human experience that we can feel but cannot actually see.
The Completed Faces
With each completed Celestial Face, an abstract idea becomes something physical. Although clay and stained glass connect the series, each sculpture has developed its own materials, visual language, and personality. The finished works are where the original concept and the unpredictable process of making finally come together.
Once the ceramic face is sculpted, dried, glazed, and fired, I begin building outward. Hand-cut stained glass mosaic provides color, movement, texture, and reflected light, but I don't limit myself to glass. Depending on what the piece calls for, I may also use sculpted epoxy clay, mirror, metal, pigments, metallic finishes, crystals, or other materials. The materials aren't simply decoration; they become part of the final artwork's visual language. Every element contributes to the energy I want the piece to express.
I usually know the central quality I want a Celestial Face to embody before I begin, but I don't design every detail in advance. A sculpted face can suggest a different direction than I had originally planned. A firing can unexpectedly change a surface. Glaze does not always behave as anticipated or hoped for. A particular piece of glass can solve a problem, create one, or inspire something entirely new. The work develops through a combination of intention, experimentation, problem-solving, and discovery.
The Series
From Inspiration to Sculpture
Every Celestial Face begins with an idea rather than a fixed image. I first explore an expression, composition, or visual metaphor before I touch the clay. Then I sculpt the face by hand, and that is usually when the piece begins to take on a direction of its own. I've sculpted some of these faces multiple times—when the features didn't quite convey what I wanted, or when something went wrong during drying, glazing, or firing. Working with clay has made unpredictability an unavoidable, and increasingly welcome, part of the process.
Sun — Presence
Sun is about presence—the energy of being fully here and allowing yourself to be seen. I sculpted the face with open, direct eyes and a calm but unmistakable intensity. Where Moon turns inward, Sun faces the world. I wanted the expression to feel self-possessed rather than forceful, with the sense that presence doesn't require demanding attention; sometimes it comes simply from occupying your space confidently and completely.
That energy moves outward through the surrounding mosaic. Hand-cut stained glass mosaic radiates from the face in shifting bands of warm gold, amber, red, and violet, while the direction of the glass and irregular outer edge
keep the surface active. Metallic highlights extend that sense of light and movement beyond the face itself. For me, Sun became less about brightness than about radiance—the energy that comes from being fully present and expressing what is already within.
Earth — Grounding
Earth was the first completed Celestial Face and the piece that established the direction for the series. I wanted her to feel calm, rooted, abundant, and quietly resilient. Her expression came first, and I refined the sculpted face until it had the sense of steadiness I was looking for. From there, the sculpture began to grow outward almost literally.
Using epoxy clay, I sculpted vines, leaves, flowers, fruit, and curling organic forms that surround the face and transform her hair into a living landscape.
Behind her, the hand-cut stained glass mosaic in deep blues creates a luminous field suggestive of sky and water, while the irregular shapes and directional placement of the glass keep the surface moving. Earth taught me something that became fundamental to the series: I didn't need to illustrate a planet literally. I could use the human face, materials, color, texture, and metaphor to express the idea behind it.
Moon — Reflection
Moon turns inward. I sculpted her with closed eyes and a quiet expression to suggest stillness, introspection, and the kind of reflection that happens beneath the surface. The surrounding composition grew from that idea, with the face emerging from a cratered lunar surface against a dark field of night sky.
The materials reinforce that sense of reflected rather than generated light. A mosaic of pale stained glass, mirrored elements, metallic silver surfaces, crystals, and sculpted craters catch and return light differently as the viewer moves around the piece. Even the small crystal stars
scattered through the dark mosaic background participate in that play of light. Moon became an exploration of quietness without emptiness, and of the depth that can be found by turning inward.
there, the mosaic developed into sweeping bands of dark metallic glass, copper, and silver, with copper fire glass and metal elements adding further shifts in texture and reflected light. Mercury evolved through adaptation and problem-solving, so the process ultimately came to embody the concept: the piece became what it is by changing.
Saturn — Strength
Saturn is about strength—the kind built slowly through experience, endurance, responsibility, and time. Not strength as force or invulnerability, but the ability to remain rooted through difficulty, to adapt, and to keep growing. I wanted Saturn to have a sense of age and gravity, but also resilience.
The ceramic face sits within a dark, deeply textured tree that grows around, behind, and across it. The branches twist outward while the face remains calm and steady at the center. Iridescent stained glass fills the spaces between them, shifting through earthy blues, greens, violets, golds, and bronze as the light changes. The contrast between the rough, almost ancient-looking tree and the luminous glass gives Saturn both weight and life.
There is something protective about the tree, but it isn't simply shelter. It has grown together with the face until the two seem inseparable—as though whatever Saturn has lived through has become part of its structure.
For me, Saturn represents the strength we don't necessarily begin with, but acquire. The kind that comes from being tested, learning what we can carry, and discovering that we are still capable of growing.
Mercury — Transformation
Mercury began with transformation: ideas taking shape through communication, movement, and exchange. I chose a profile rather than a frontal face, immediately giving Mercury a different visual language from the pieces that came before. The expression is alert and slightly elusive, while the gender ambiguity of the face adds another layer to the idea of something that resists being fixed into a single form.
Transformation also became part of the making itself. When portions of the original ceramic hair didn't survive the firing process, I rebuilt them with sculpted epoxy rather than trying to recreate what had been lost. From
The Journey Continues
With five Celestial Faces complete and five more still taking shape, the series continues to evolve in ways I couldn't have fully anticipated when I began. Each new piece teaches me something about the materials, the ideas, and what I want this body of work to be.
I'll continue adding each Celestial Face here as it is completed. Eventually, all ten will come together as one family of very different faces—each giving physical form to aspects of the human experience that we can feel but cannot actually see.
Explore the Work
The solar system gives Celestial Faces its structure, but the ideas behind each piece come from many sources. I draw from astronomy and the physical characteristics of the celestial bodies, as well as astrology, ancient belief systems, traditional correspondences, mythology, and the meanings humans have associated with the heavens over time. The chart shows the framework I've developed for the series: ten celestial bodies, each associated with a different human energy or experience.
These associations don't follow any single system or tradition. I've gathered ideas from many sources, choosing the qualities that resonate with me and make sense within the larger series, then interpreting them through my own artistic perspective. Once I've identified the central idea for a piece, I look for ways to give it physical form through a human face and the language of sculpture and mosaic. Expression, gesture, color, texture, movement, reflected light, and even the nature and behavior of the materials can all become part of the meaning. That framework connects the sculptures as a series while leaving me the freedom to make every Celestial Face completely different from the others.