When she closes her eyes, Mel Arsenault imagines looking out a window onto lush vegetation, an abundance of flowers, and a sky filled with stars. She dreams of a

verdant, unpolluted natural world. The works in this new body of work emerge from this waking dream. In Views from the Windows of a Dreamed-of House, Arsenault

envisions a life in harmony with the living world, where humans, flowers, and butterflies coexist in a spirit of reciprocity. Vases, ceramic sculptures, wall works, and silk prints become vessels for this abundant natural world, their three-dimensional forms providing open spaces for it to take shape. Petals and leaves overlap, while butterflies and dragonflies drift from one vase to another, or alight on sculptures. Water lilies become one with the water, reflecting the splendour of the sky and the Milky Way.

Arsenault’s ceramic practice is closely aligned with painting. Her glazes carry colour while bringing luminosity and radiance to the surfaces, and introducing an…