Terracotta Head
Gabriella Polony Mountain's work includes four major themes. The first three themes are clearly recognizable as the Cosmos, Nature, and Figural works with the fourth theme encompassing history, philosophy, and culture. In her life as an artist, Polony Mountain worked with many different medium including mosaics, weavings, sculpture, stained glass, and repousse. Sculpture is a three dimensional branch of the visual arts. In traditional forms of sculpture, the materials used were easily accessible and consisted of stone, metal, wood, ceramics. The process for creating sculpture is as varied as the materials used and include carving, modelling, molded, cast, welded. These days the sculptural form is one with fewer boundaries in terms of material and process.
One material that Polony Mountain used to create sculptures is terracotta. Terracotta is a clay based earthenware that be can glazed to give a sheen to the final piece, or left unglazed in its natural porous form. "Terracotta Head" depicts a woman in thought and features uniquely carved lines to accentuate her eyes, nose, lips, hair, and jewelry. Her eyes gaze softly toward the viewer and her lips are gently closed. There is a quiet nature about her as she observes the world around her. Adding to her feminine features, her hair is fixed in a bun and a necklace of simple geometric forms adorn her neck.