This ceramic series is based on Egyptian canopic jars and Stanhope viewers and exhibited as three separate editions. The first edition contained eleven jars in and showed at ICOSA Gallery in Austin in April 2021. The stoneware jars are vessels which resemble various fauna, both actual and mythical. Inspired by the isolation of the pandemic, each of the artworks contain a group portrait of all the other jars in the edition, the idea being that we carry those whom we are connected to inside of us. The second edition of fourteen vessels showed at Wasserman Works in Detroit in September 2022, alongside composite photographic portraits. This edition had unique elements, like double-headed creatures, triple-segmented jars and vessels with reversible heads. Like Walt Whitman’s “I contain multitudes,” this project incorporates the idea of inherited memory which has been the foundation of several recent projects. The internal portraits can only be seen when you lift the head or lid and let the light in, looking through the brass peephole. Even after the pieces have gone to new homes, they are invariably connected as a family, as evidenced by the images inside them. The third edition of fifteen stoneware viewing jars was part of a show I curated at Preacher Gallery in Austin in September 2023. Ocular Nocturnes showcased these clay vessels, photographs, new paintings and a mobile alongside the work of Bruce Lee Webb and Jaime Zuverza, an exploration into the symbiosis of mysticism and metaphysics.