By Rosemarie Tischer Stith
1st Place, Visual (3D), Create | Encounter 2021
Artist Statement:
As a very young child, Rosemarie Tischer Stith lived through Allied firebombings in what became East Germany. Fleeing west to escape the Russians, Röschen (“Little Rose”) and her family settled as refugees in Schleswig-Holstein, where her parents built a home in the dunes of the North Sea. After meeting her future husband, Richard, in Berlin in 1969, Rosemarie found her way into the art world in New Haven, Connecticut. There she threw innumerable clay vessels on the potter’s wheel. Similar pieces were later embellished by hand and assembled as sculptures, such as this one entitled “Visitation.” It shows the pregnant Elizabeth telling the pregnant Mary about the movement in her womb, while Mary remembers the commencement of her own pregnancy.