Layl McDill
Sculpture
Phone
Online
Made to Order Ornaments for sale at: https://shop.claysquared.com/collections/layls-silly-milly-art
And my Etsy Site: https://www.etsy.com/shop/laylmcdill
I am a mixed media artist using the sensation of story to help make sense of the world. In my most recent body of work I am creating pieces that celebrate the vital species and community members in this complex web of life we are all part of. My work usually includes an interactive component to further engage the viewer and the community.
In my latest series I am creating large mixed media wall pieces. My piece “Reuse on the Range” evolved from thinking about how indigenous people would use every part of an animal, especially the plains indians using bison, and never waste a thing. I created this bison as a way to examine all the ways we can reuse things in our lives and share ideas with each other. The viewer is invited to add their own reuse ideas- written on a piece of Monopoly money and then folded and placed onto a shelf in the piece.
Another large scale piece “Eagar Eco Engineer” is about the “keystone species” – beavers. As I created this piece I researched these amazing creatures and their importance to the ecosystem. We as humans have had a fraught relationship with beavers but they are extremely important to the climate. My sculpture has many hidden stories and metaphors about this long complicated story. This piece includes a QR code that takes you to a blog filled with links about each section of the piece.
There are multiple layers of discovery in my work. First there are the large found objects that form the main construction of the work, then there are the smaller found objects and finally there are the millefiori slices of tiny designs in the polymer clay. This is an ancient glass technique which I have adapted to polymer clay. My pallet of pictures that I use on my pieces is extensive as I have millefiori canes going back as far as 20 years. When I create a piece I use these slices mainly for their color and texture but when the piece is on view it becomes a treasure hunt for tiny captivating discoveries.
Other recent works celebrate our human need for stories to explain and understand our world. My piece “Infinite Story Generator, Hero’s Journey” is a structure for the classic story of an adventure through all the archetypal settings of forest, sea and mountains. This and other pieces in this exhibit feel like they are from a familiar fable or fairy tale but they are really just waiting for the viewer to overlay their own imagination to discover the story themselves.
My mission in my work is to use stories and animals in order to compel others to listen and look at issues we have to examine in new ways that lead towards creative solutions. In my newer work I hope to start with conversations with individuals such as farmers to inform the concepts I will explore and then to create work that includes community engagement.
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