About the Ceramic Sculpture called HOPE, a collaboration by Stephanie F. Osser and Jamaal Eversley, for 2020 exhibit called “Real Friends” at Beacon Gallery, Boston, MA

My former student from Babson College, Jamaal Eversley, asked me to make a sculpture of him, and was my art director with a dynamic vision. I used to teach ceramics and manage the ceramic studio for Babson, Olin and Wellesley College students, 2006 – 2012.
Eversley has been honored to co-curate and collaborate with gallery director Christine O’Donnell at the Beacon Gallery in Boston. Their Exhibition called “Real F.R.I.E.N.D.S” that has been on view from September and October 2020, bringing joy in these tough times.

Eversley is a talented Painter, and Actor too, and Community Arts Organizer, and has collaborated with artists friends, of which I am delighted he calls me one. These colleagues and multi-media artists are showing collaboration works each using their individual expressions combined with Eversley’s.

It has been my honor to create a portrait of him in terra cotta clay, inviting Jamaal to paint it with underglazes. The piece made it through a firing perfectly, with addition of some underglaze. Next would have been original ceramic underglaze painting by Jamaal, back in my ceramic studio, with another kiln firing, but the world was in isolation because of the Covid virus.

Jamaal took the piece to his studio and painted the clothing of our portrait sculpture with what we call in ceramics, “a warm temperature glaze” or a cold finish of acrylic paint, the medium he uses for his vibrant paintings. Next came his dynamic theme showing the great Martin Luther King in a photo-painting and calling the sculpture HOPE.

Another talented colleague friend, and painter in the exhibit, Melissa Shaak, created a dynamic video with MLK speaking in the background, with excerpts of his memorable speeches, showing all my process images in clay, creating HOPE.

A youtube video showcasing the dynamic exhibit of Real Friends with a documentary of the process of me making the sculpture.