Five women and one strange-looking child sat silently at lunch. None was moving except Sheila Myers, ceramic artist and the creator of these arresting figures. She dashed around making last-minute adjustments to her "friends" before the opening of the her joint show that evening with fellow ceramicist, Barbara Mason. Sheila explained that the women were modelled on friends and herself. That's her seated in front of her real self and pouring from a blue bottle.
The place was the Inner City Clayworkers Gallery, a ceramic artists' cooperative. My wife and I often stop in especially to see the annual teapot exhibition. (It's amazing what some people use to make their tea.) We'd never met Sheila and were surprised to learn that three ceramic cicadas we'd bought from the gallery were also her creations.
Impressive as the women at lunch were it was the lunch itself---all ceramic---that got is in. It was so realistic that we could smell it. Bread, cheese, noodles, and some very realistic lettuce leaves.
It wasn't long before we hurried home to a somewhat less crunchy lunch and tea straight from the teabag.
Our cicadas.
