Sylvie Pool Alvarez

Touch, in my opinion, is the most underrated and undervalued of the senses. It has the power -
to Heal,
to Soothe,
to Hurt,
to Love,
to Create.

The way a lover's skin feels during a passionate moment.
The way mud feels squishing through my toes.
The way porcelain slides through my hands and fingers as I unawaredely manipulate it in the way my mind wants.
This is how I create.

I create through a stream of consciousness and I find it very freeing because my hands just create whatever the brain is directly telling them to do. There's no pre-planning so it frees the mind from responsibility, allowing the mind to revel and enjoy the beauty of the moment. As I am eternally fascinated by the purity of form and fluidity within the seas' depths, my hands "massage" sculptures into being inspired by the creatures and oceanic movements found within. Squishing clay through my fingers... The sensuality of it is like nothing else and that is why I choose to use no other tools, apart from my hands, when I sculpt.

About Sylvie -

Sylvie doesn’t remember when she was first introduced to clay because it was around her from birth – her grandmother had her pottery studio on the ground floor of their house in Bel Air, Seychelles. When she...

2022 - Ceramic workshop with Alberto Bustos, Gaya Ceramic Arts Center, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

2019 - MA in Art with concentration in Sculpture and Ceramics, University of Guam, Guam

1995 - BA in English and French, Converse University, South Carolina, USA and Centre d’Avignon, France

2024

Ripple Effect, Clay Center of New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA (group)

2023

10th Arterial Fair, Eden Art Space, Eden Island, Seychelles (group)

Indigo Blue: Sacred Wisdom of Our Islands and Ocean – Austronesian International Arts Exhibition, The Hyatt Regency Guam, Guam (group)

LIGHT, Eden Art Space, Eden Island, Seychelles (group)

Curator's Pick, Issue 4 / Summer 2023, Women United Art Magazine

6th FLOWER International Juried Art Competition, virtual exhibition, Teravarna (group)

Animals, international virtual exhibition, Light Space & Time (group)

Animalia – International Virtual Exhibition, Art Fluent (group)

Untitled 3 – A New Exhibition of Seychelles Contemporary Art, Eden Art Space, Eden Island,
Seychelles (group)

Cross-Currents, 44th CLASS Annual Research Conference (ARC) Exhibition, Isla Center for the
Arts, Univ. of Guam, Guam (group)

2022

Imbentibu Famalao'an II, Lees-Reyes Gallery, Tumon Sands, Guam (group)

A Retrospective of Visual Arts at the University of Guam, 43rd CLASS Annual Research
Conference (ARC) Exhibition, Isla Center for the Arts, Univ. of Guam, Guam (group)

2020

Building Strength and Sovereignty in the Pacific, 41st CLASS ARC Exhibition, Isla Center for the Arts, Univ. o...