Water Meters
As a distance runner and walker, I’ve spent hundreds of hours over thousands of miles meditating on the communities and infrastructure I pass by on streets and trails. My art has always been influenced by and woven into my surroundings. I’ve installed unauthorized mile markers on local streets, pulled stamps from natural textures and incorporated found objects into my work. A few years back, I began to hunt water meters; taking ceramic print molds off of these literal underground entryways to a resource many Texans only recently realized we are deeply dependent on. Whether it is the more frequent droughts, the Great Freeze in February 2021, corroding pipes, boil notices from Zebra muscles in the pipes or simply Tarrytown residences drilling their own wells to evade restrictions, these manhole covers beg the question who meters our collective resource?
I alter ceramic slabs and add to the designs to create wall hangings, and functional pieces. The GPS coordinates of where meters were captured are marked on my pieces so you can see where the original was found. They are a piece of Austin, an invitation to think about our water infrastructure and a simple recognition that there is beauty in the overlooked. If nothing else, you'll know where to shut the water off the next time Texas freezes over.
I alter ceramic slabs and add to the designs to create wall hangings, and functional pieces. The GPS coordinates of where meters were captured are marked on my pieces so you can see where the original was found. They are a piece of Austin, an invitation to think about our water infrastructure and a simple recognition that there is beauty in the overlooked. If nothing else, you'll know where to shut the water off the next time Texas freezes over.
