What Is Left Behind

As a potter, I explore what it means to create handmade objects that have the capacity to hold memory and transform over time. Our relationship to domestic items is ever-evolving as they collect associations and memories through use. What is Left Behind is my attempt to process the way my lived experience has changed since the sudden and unexpected death of my mother. As I reckon with all that my mother has left behind, I reflect on how the way I relate to the objects around me has changed. Things once mundane, such as my mother’s handwriting, become something I treasure, a physical proof of her existence. A connection to text and handwriting has since become central to my work—not just as a visual element, but as a way of preserving and understanding memory. I incorporate my mother’s notes, as well as old letters written to her, and my own journal entries into my surface decoration. The flowers I choose to depict have a specific reference to my parents’ childhood landscapes and my own life experiences. Flowers, like handwriting, have an expressive nature and their own connection to time; they are constantly changing, and only bloom for fleeting moments.

Bio

Halle Vishlitzky is an emerging ceramic artist, currently working out of Portland, Maine. She will graduate in 2026 from Maine College of Art & Design, completing a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Ceramics. Vishlitzky grew up in Massachusetts in a family of immigrants and artists. She discovered her love of clay at the age of eleven after taking her first wheel-throwing class and has been making functional pottery ever since. Her work is inspired by personal experiences, family history, and the objects that shape memory.