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♪♪

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-I remember the very first time
I tried to draw.

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I was about 3,
and my sister was 5.

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And she, being older than me,

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I thought was amazing
at everything.

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And I really wanted to be
an awesome artist

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like my sister.

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It was about six
or seven years ago,

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I found some early ephemera
of me and hers,

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and she drew stick figures.

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She was a 5-year-old,

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but I thought
she was so incredible.

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And I guess that
that was the inspiration.

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It's something that
I have always loved to do,

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is playing with materials
and drawing.

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I worked in textiles
for a long time.

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I did custom lighting
and lighting pieces.

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And I hated it,
but I was really good at it.

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But it was never for me.

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It's so finicky and delicate,

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and you have to be clean,
clean, clean.

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And then I met plaster
something like 20 years ago,

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and it was brutal,

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and you have to put
your whole body into it.

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And I like that I get to play
with mud for a living

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and be messy,
and I like that it's layers.

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And that's how you make
a giant mess.

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There's many different kinds
of plasters.

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I have, for 20 years, worked
in finish-grade plasters,

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lime-based plasters
like Marmorino,

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Venetian plasters,
and Tadelakt in specific

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is a Moroccan plaster
and it is just exceptional.

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It is made using a lot
of the similar materials

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as a Marmorino
or a Venetian plaster,

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but it also has an obsidian
glass ground into it.

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It's been in the hands of men
for a long time, plaster,

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and they've been using it
the same way --

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either to fresco
or as wall finishes.

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But it's so much
more than that.

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And Tadelakt in specific
can be so much more than that.

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Just the way it works,

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the different finishes
you can get,

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how you can see
the particulates in it.

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So, it really -- it really
looks like stone.

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We don't even know
what it can do yet.

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And that's one of the things
I love about my medium,

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is it's ancient
and incredibly experimental.

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The way you're going to get
a specific texture

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or visual effect
with the plaster is with time.

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So, whether or not
you're going to burnish it,

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leave it matte, whatever.

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That drying process is integral

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because you have to catch it
at the right time

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before you put
your full weight in it

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and burnish it and burnish it

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and then get
the effect you want.

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I need the time in between.

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I need the time
to think about it

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and to step away
and really look at it

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and let it fully cure

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so that I understand how the
next layer is going to interact.

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Letting plaster layers dry
has allowed me to go for walks,

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and now that I have a daughter,
to spend time with her.

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Yeah.

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April 11th,
Violet Viper Bassett was born

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and she is already a force
to be reckoned with,

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and it's been the best

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because she reminded me
that's what I was.

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And I went through this
really horrible loss before her.

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And I used to not be able
to look in the mirror

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'cause I didn't see myself.

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And I found this picture of

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when I was doing stand-up
in the Village in New York,

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and I was like 22 years old
and I was a force, you know?

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And she is that.

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And it's just such a pleasure
and a delight to be around.

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But yeah, it's the best decision
I ever made, making that kid.

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My whole body of work right now
that I'm working on

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until about May is called
Time in a Bottle.

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And all my pieces are about time
'cause it's my biggest enemy.

81
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It doesn't play by any rules.

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If you want more of it,
there's less of it.

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If you want it to stop,
it goes faster.

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If you want it to go faster,
it slows down.

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I went through
a brutal heartbreak and loss,

86
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and I don't understand.

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You know, that happened
in the same chunk of time

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that I decided to use a donor
and have my daughter,

89
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and now
there's all these moments

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I want to freeze
and keep forever.

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But there were all these times
where it wouldn't go fast enough

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to help the heartbreak go away.

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Or now it's like going so fast
that I just had my kid,

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but she's not a baby anymore.

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She's going to be walking,
and that's a blip.

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And plaster is all about time.

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It's so ancient
and it'll be here forever.

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It doesn't bleach.
It doesn't fade.

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When I make a piece,
it's always very personal to me,

100
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these thoughts or these memories
I put into stone.

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And the only meaning
that they have

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is if someone happens
to engage with a piece I have

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and they feel something.

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♪♪

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♪♪

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I go by "Monster" a lot of times

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because monsters
are just a creature

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that you don't understand,
that has incredible powers,

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that everyone wants to destroy.

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And I think that's how I've felt
my whole life.

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I'm not a princess.
I'm not a hero.

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I'm just a monster.

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And I want to be in my lair
and breathe fire and make magic.

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If you're the scariest thing,

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like, what do you have
to be afraid of?

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And I really, like, I feel like
that I'm not afraid of anything.

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♪♪

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The lake is crystal clear,
especially in the winter.

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And I hate being cold,

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but there's just this charge
that happens

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when you get in the water
at whatever temperature,

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and so I swim year-round.

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And I do it in the morning.

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No one else is up.

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There's bald eagles down there
that know me now.

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They won't move.
They'll be like 4 feet from me

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on a branch by the lake,
and it feels like

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how people should live --
swimming in the cold,

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and then you get out
and you feel so alive

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and you come in here
and you play with mud.

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I mean, I hazard to guess
if anyone did this

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for a month of their life,

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that it wouldn't totally change
how they feel about everything.

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-Right now at Vetri,

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we're showing the work
of Dawn Bassett.

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Dawn is somebody
that has been working

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in the medium
of Tadelakt plaster,

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and she's using it in a way
that is very different

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from anything that I've seen
really anywhere.

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She's able to take the things
and the images out of her mind

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that she wants to create
and expertly create them.

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And I think that's
the difference with her work,

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is that it's informed by what
image she's trying to create,

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but it's also informed
by what the material will allow.

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And it's her relationship
with the material

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that is a partnership

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and making all the pieces
that are in the gallery.

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I think Dawn's career is headed
in a global direction,

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towards showing
in more and more galleries

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and working more and more
in the studio.

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This is what she's been working
towards for so many years.

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-When I think about
where my work is going,

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I've always said this,

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and I don't care
if people think I'm crazy --

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I want Gagosian by 45.

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And by that I mean I want
a world stage for plaster.

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I won't stop.
I don't stop.

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And I know that this material
has so much to say.

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And that's five years from now.

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And what I'm going to be
making in five years

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is going to be crazy.

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As long as people just get
out of my way, it's happening.

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♪♪

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♪♪

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-Follow Dawn on Instagram

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and at Vetri.

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For hours and location

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go to VetriGlass.com.

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♪♪

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♪♪

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Catch Art Zone Friday
nights at 8

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and anytime online

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at SeattleChannel.org/ArtZone.

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♪♪