Midnight Ride is a contemplative ceramic exhibition exploring our nation's mortality. Each hand-carved vessel incorporates memento mori motifs in low relief—skulls, wilting flowers, and other quiet emblems of impermanence—reminding us of the fragile, fleeting nature of life. This body of work was shaped by the turbulent political climate in America. The instability and uncertainty coursing through the nation have served as both backdrop and catalyst—drawing a stark parallel between the precarity of our civic landscape and the inevitable truths of human existence. As systems unravel and futures blur, these pieces offer a grounded space for contemplation. By merging symbolic carving with everyday objects, Midnight Ride collapses the boundaries between function and philosophy. The show invites viewers to confront the fragility of our institutions and beliefs, and to carry that awareness with them in the quiet, daily acts of living.

About the artist

Eileen Sackman is a ceramic artist living in New York’s Hudson Valley. She exhibits her hand-carved ceramics nationally, most recently at the Ohio Museum of Craft and LSU School of Art’s Shaw Center for the Arts. Sackman also teaches ceramics at both the university and community arts levels. She recently was an invited artist-in-residence at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, she curates national and international ceramic exhibitions, and her most recent research in wood firing was published in The Studio Potter magazine in December 2024.