Leah Hamel

The idea of “home” is a feeling, and is not always rooted in a physical structure, and unique to each person. It’s something that doesn’t just appear on arrival, but is built through compilation of experiences. It’s a process, a cycle that has a beginning and end. When someone asks, “what reminds you of home?”, it’s rarely just the house itself; It is the people, the landscape, and the places you love to go. It is the memories surrounding the structure that make it home.

88th Place North is the address of the home I grew up in on the edge of the airport in North Roebuck. After moving from the area, our historic home and all others around it were bulldozed to make way for the expanding airport. Even though we had not lived at 88th Place for a number of years at that point, we all agreed that this still felt like a loss; a death of something that was a part of all of us in our family. Of course we still had our memories, but something felt important about the house as this monument to those memories; some physical symbol that this precious time had really existed beyond photos and stories. It was through this different experience of loss that I began truly contemplating through my artwork the impermanence of everything and how we as humans tend to hold on to things as proof or reminders of experiences, objects, or people who are no longer physically present.

This vessel, made in the likeness of my home on 88th Place North, serves as a symbol not only of the house itself, but for me, a reminder of my childhood: a time filled with curiosity for everything, reading books for fun because there was time for that, and making mud pies under a big old oak tree with my sister. Its purpose is functional in two ways- one as a permanent utilitarian vessel meant to hold flowers temporarily, and second, to evoke from each viewer their own sense of what “home” means to them.

Leah Hamel received her BFA from University of Alabama Birmingham, her MFA from Louisiana State University in 2016. Upon graduation from LSU, Hamel was the recipient of the Dean’s medal of honor for academic achievement and leadership at LSU, and has since received several awards and publications for her sculptural work which is exhibited nationally. Hamel has held teaching positions at University of Louisiana Lafayette, Southeastern Louisiana University, Mendel University in Czech Republic, and Lawson State CC. Currently she is teaching all levels art and ceramics at Center Point High School and foundations courses at Samford University. Aside from teaching, Hamel is currently pursuing a Master in Art Education from UAB in Birmingham where she currently resides.

The geography and experiences of growing up in Birmingham and living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana have played a lasting role in the themes explored through Hamel’s work. These urban cities nestled in distinct surrounding nature mirror both her use of material and expression of form.

Space One Eleven Involvement: CCA Teaching Artist Summer 2012, 2019, 2021