The Clay Studio | Once in a Blue Moon

a Collection of Idioms by Celia Feldberg

Jul 10th - Jul 31st, 2025

Exhibition Catalog

There are over 25,000 idioms just in the English language and we use them all the time, often without even realizing! There’s a whole spectrum from phrases as commonplace as “call it a day” or “hang in there” to more colorful ones, like “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”. By definition, an idiom is an expression that has a meaning you couldn’t deduce from the meanings of the individual words, leaving us these widely known, while somewhat absurd, turns of phrase. Tracing idioms back to their origins gives us snapshots into times past and quirky superstitions. An ancient Roman belief that adding a grain of salt could protect you from getting poisoned (“take it with a grain of salt”) or in 1800’s England serving someone a cold, tough cut of meat when you wanted them to get out of your house (“giving the cold shoulder”). Some phrases have been shortened and translated so many times they’ve grown nonsensical, and despite that, we still understand them.

I was drawn to using idioms as a jumping off point for this series because of how evocative they are. Animal characters get to play as much as human ones in lighthearted illustrated interpretations that favor a literal-minded approach over a linguistically correct one. With whimsical narratives, bright colors, and freeform shapes, these pieces offer an uncomplicated outlook, and a reminder of our ability to connect even when it feels like nothing makes sense!

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