Amy Sanders de Melo

Nước, Words by Sabrina Ton, 2024, Stoneware, handwritten Braille, 5 x 14 x 14 inches. Retail Value: $1400.

Amy Sanders de Melo is a Colombian-American artist and educator living and working in Oklahoma. As a multidisciplinary artist with visual impairments, she strives to create ceramic work and installations that speak to the resiliency of the human spirit. She utilizes Braille on porcelain as a way of telling stories, encouraging meditation, and creating space for grieving and healing. 

This series features ceramic vessels with handwritten Braille text on them. The words on the pots in the series were provided by individuals that live across the US. Loved ones, acquaintances, and strangers.

Words by Sabrina: The Vietnamese word for country is the same as water. 
The water had carried my family to refuge. In immigration: endless ocean transformed to endless prairie. 
Now, I am a product of the American heartland, but my heart longs for the water.